Automated System Verification Can Be a Proactive Systems Approach

June 15, 2018
Today’s complex enterprise networks mandate sophisticated checks and balances

As networked physical surveillance and security systems continue to deliver better security, higher levels of integration, virtually unlimited scalability and easier operation, the migration from traditional analog solutions to IP-enabled solutions continues to accelerate. This ongoing transformation within enterprises is also driving the integration of automated system verification solutions that work with these digital systems, ensuring continuous operation and notifying system administrators of impending failures, degradation, or cyber-criminal activity.

Without combining IP-based physical security systems with automated verification, really bad things can and do happen – most importantly is missing video evidence, but can also extend into failing compliance standards (like PCI), corporate and brand reputations being damaged, and higher risks to people and property.  In other words, risks and consequences that few organizations would accept.

Advanced Systems Require an Automated Solution

Enterprises have historically relied on humans to physically monitor surveillance and security system performance and operation. But today’s advanced networked systems running on IP infrastructure are much more complex by nature. With analog video surveillance, a system operator seeing video on a display could almost always count on it being stored correctly.  In an IP-based system seeing video on a monitor says nothing about it being stored properly – you need to independently verify that the video evidence is stored and available for use. This is a real problem on many levels, especially for maintaining the system and avoiding downtime, but also for compliance and cybersecurity. 

This calls for more proactive and automated approaches to system verification models so that system operators can be instantly alerted of an impending and/or active system failure, and dispatch technicians to address the specific source of the disruption. Otherwise, it is often difficult to tell where the source of the problem lies within a complex network – malfunctioning cables, hackers having breached the security network, a Video Management System (VMS) integration issue, by a network communication issue or the possibility that the camera itself has simply malfunctioned. As a result, IT and security personnel are increasingly looking to automated system verification solutions that provide a proactive reporting model to quickly resolve system outages and virtually put an end to missing video. 

With proactive reporting enabled by an automated system verification solution, the network itself reports on any issues that may be affecting your surveillance or security system, continuously keeping watch on the entire system, and sending alerts and notifications to the integrator or operator should a problem arise. This allows system operators to quickly and easily assess what remediation is required, establish a maintenance plan, and gather the necessary resources before technicians are dispatched to the location. 

Rather than guesswork and iterative attempts to get to the root cause, an automated system verification solution can automatically diagnose the failure immediately when it is detected, and issue an alert with precise information to the proper personnel. By streamlining the procedure of detection, analysis, and confirmation, system maintenance is made massively more cost-efficient and effective. 

Ensuring Compliance Made Easier

Compliance for physical security has become an imperative for many digital security operations. Automated system verification solutions not only help ensure higher levels of security, they eliminate the guesswork and anxiety of impending compliance audits and replaces significant manual effort with push-button operations. In businesses where regulations require physical security to be operational in order for them to operate (such as casinos, or more recently retail point-of-sale), being able to minimize maintenance downtime can be a significant factor in that business’s profit or loss. Maintaining compliance, while performing maintenance, is a difficult task that can be made much simpler by enabling an automated system verification solution that proactively reports issues and allows them to be solved more quickly or before a system would even need to be taken offline.

One of the most important compliance factors for a security or surveillance system is the maintenance of sufficient storage to retain data, including video surveillance, for significant periods of time.  Retention periods are often part of regulatory requirements, with fines and penalties if they are not met.  Organizations could also encounter legal issues if video isn’t properly recorded or stored. For example, if a slip-and-fall claim that has turned out to be fraudulent, but an organization doesn’t have video and corresponding data to audit for the investigative process, there is no way to determine whether a claim or lawsuit is valid-- and the most prevalent course of action is to pay a costly settlement.

An automated system verification solution ensures that the video and data streams of system devices can be continuously verified, and operations personnel are alerted the moment a problem is detected. The solution can also detect and notify the appropriate parties of an impending storage failure before it occurs, preventing such issues from happening.

Automated Systems Help in Cost Reduction

For problems that can’t be detected ahead of time, the proactive reporting enabled by an automated video and data verification solution can help pinpoint the precise location where a problem exists. This significantly reduces the time required to resolve the issue, which may be as simple as rebooting a device. However, if on-site service is needed, rather than having to take time to diagnose and isolate the problem, a technician can arrive at the affected location with all the information needed to repair or replace components immediately.

Automated solutions help to dramatically reduce the costs involved in maintaining and operating security systems. In addition to reducing the costs incurred by downtime and unnecessary truck-rolls for maintenance, an automated video and data verification solution also eliminates the need for personnel to continually check systems manually to verify that they are working properly. Not only does this reduce human error and costs, it makes better use of system operators’ time and prevents the dispersal of staff away from core security activities.

With highly efficient automated video and data verification solutions, operators can proactively verify the continual, uninterrupted flow of video and data for recording and storage. Recognizing the range of potential applications for these solutions, security and IT personnel can seize the opportunity to deliver enhanced security, lower downtime and costs, and deliver more effective and efficient compliance processes.

Cyber Threats Mandate System Diligence

Cybersecurity is another reason why manual methods are not sufficient anymore.  The added benefit of addressing the current and growing risk of cyber breaches only enhances the value of this technology. These solutions also help ensure that sensitive video and data is not being viewed by unauthorized third parties, or, in a worst-case scenario, someone who has hacked into the network and can send alerts if unauthorized activity occurs on the network. Automation also helps in keeping track of what is on the physical security network, a basic requirement for cyber hygiene.  Whether it is keeping up with the (now) frequent firmware patches needed to plug cyber vulnerabilities, or looking for “out of band” traffic flows from key devices, the operators of physical security systems urgently need to have information available at a moment’s notice to keep their systems free of potential cyber threats.

Applying automated verification solutions to surveillance and security systems greatly adds to the available data from which system behavior can be tracked and assessed.  Use of analytics to improve operations is a key objective in 2018 for many organizations, and its application to physical security can directly improve the safety, security, and risk profile of that organization.  The ability to predict potential device failures and reduce unnecessary maintenance calls and expenses can greatly increase overall efficiencies. In addition, automated system verification solutions can apply machine learning and anomaly detection to identify events that do not conform to an expected pattern— for example, abnormal internet access from a camera device, which may be the result of a cyber-criminal.

Automated system verification solutions ensure that your security system performs as expected, alerts you of preemptive service actions to avoid downtime, streamlines unnecessary service calls, protects from cyber-threats, and reduces overall costs. Taking advantage of the efficiency and the accuracy that these solutions provide for a surveillance or security system can help to provide higher levels of security throughout a business or facility.  Most importantly, in moving from a reactive to proactive approach to maintaining physical security, you can demonstrate (and prove with numbers) control over mission and life-critical aspects of your business. 

About the Author: Bud Broomhead is the CEO and Founder of Viakoo, Inc. Viakoo is an Industrial IoT company with a focus on providing Operational Intelligence for IP-based physical security networks. Viakoo has built an extensible cloud-based Industrial IoT framework. Its critical infrastructure customers include ports, railways, oil & gas, retail, gaming, and education.  Viakoo leverages IoT edge-based processing for metadata discovery, capture, semantic contextualization, and cloud-based patent-pending infrastructure analytics of events, root cause, and corrective actions, to transform metadata into actionable information.