The news broke this week that 57 illegal immigrants were arrested after being found working in what are considered critical infrastructure sites, including our nations airports. Not to delay, Republican California Congressman Elton Gallegly has introduced a bill that would require a simple electronic verification of someone's right to work, by verifying their Social Security number. While we haven't seen all the details on how Gallegly's proposed bill would work, this sounds like a step in the right direction. While these first 57 illegals may have just been people looking for decent jobs, the next wave could include a potential terrorist.
It's been a busy month in the M&A (mergers and acquisitions) arena, with a lot of the better known companies picking up more arrows for their quivers. Here's a quick run-down in case you want to check out what's been happening with some of your vendors or partners as far as who's buying who and who's partnering with whom:
- L-3 Acquires Mobile-Vision
- Vicon Forms Partnership with ObjectVideo
- GE Commercial Purchases Bombardier Unit
- IPIX and Vistascape Form Partnership
- GE Acquires Edwards
- UTC Acquires Lenel
- Boon Edam Acquires Tomsed
We've all been closely following the VoIP issue, but knowing that VoIP doesn't support alarm systems, who ever would have thought you'd see an alarm systems manufacturer partnering with a VoIP company? Somebody had to do it, and that somebody was Alarm.com, which recently announced a marketing partnership with Vonage.
In Maryland, following a previous story about requiring CCTV in shopping centers that you saw first on SecurityInfoWatch.com, another county is now following in the footsteps of Baltimore County. Anne Arundel County has proposed a law that, like Baltimore County, would require retail centers with 15 or more commercial businesses in them to use CCTV/surveillance systems in their parking lots. For security execs of these shopping centers, they would have 18 months to get these systems passed into the budgets and installed and operational. Whether or not your politics says this is something the government should or should not be allowed to require, all we can say is that this is positive news for anyone involved in the design, manufacturing, installation or integration of CCTV systems. We'll keep you updated as this proposed bill works its way through the county's legislative process.
Finally, take a look at some of our most popular stories in the past week.
- In Maryland, Another County Law to Require CCTV in Shopping Centers
- Accessed & Compromised: An Interview with a Hacker
- How to Train Your Security Staff for Successful Report Writing
- Processors Respond to Warnings of Terrorist Attack on Food Supply
- Theft of Credit Card Info from Polo Ralph Lauren Hits Thousands
- Milwaukee Votes to Require Guards to Respond to Burglar Alarms
