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Testing Today's Technology
New Security Equipment Has Changed Traditional Testing RequirementsThe Latest from SIW
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By Ray Bernard, PSP, CHS III
Security Technology & Design
This is the final article of a three-part series on security system testing. The third installment examines recent security technology trends and the impact they have on the testing of security technology.
Three new dimensions in security system technology significantly change the testing requirements for today's security systems. These technology trends are listed below according to the degree that they impact security system testing requirements:
• Enterprise-wide system deployment;
• Intelligence at end-point devices; and
• Rules-based systems and dynamic integration.
Enterprise-wide System Deployment
Although enterprise-class card access control and alarm monitoring systems have been available for half a decade, most global and national corporations have systems that are not interconnected, and they operate them locally or, at best, regionally. Today, the security benefits of integration with global corporate directories, IT security systems and emergency notification systems prompt the enterprise-wide deployment of access control and alarm monitoring systems.
Increasingly, many companies are shifting from local site monitoring to regional monitoring in an effort to reduce overall security monitoring costs. This is made possible by the proliferation of global corporate networks and the networking capabilities of today's IP-based, enterprise-class security systems. Corporate networking has also made it possible for companies to monitor previously unmonitored sites, using IP-based systems over wide area corporate networks.
In recent years, a new driver has emerged for enterprise-wide deployment of access control systems: regulatory compliance for Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ( HIPAA) – which both have physical access control requirements. Manual auditing of disparate access control systems is error-prone and expensive. Central automated auditing of access control reduces costs, makes regular auditing at short intervals feasible and reduces vulnerability to lapses in compliance.
Testing requirements for globally-connected and regionally-monitored systems include ensuring that:
• Security systems on the corporate network meet IT department requirements for the type and configuration of networking equipment, and for computer and network security of the security systems (compliance cannot be assumed);
