In this day and age, critical infrastructure facilities like oil and gas factories and power plants serve vital roles in keeping the society functional. One way to safeguard these facilities effectively is through "intelligently integrated surveillance."
In this day and age, critical infrastructure facilities like oil and gas factories and power plants serve vital roles in keeping the society functional. Damage done to them, whether through natural disasters or human activities, would cause disruptions to our everyday life. Keeping them secure, therefore, has become a key mission for operators.
One way to safeguard these facilities effectively is through “intelligently integrated surveillance,” according to a whitepaper by Synectics titled “Critical Infrastructure Protection: Wide-Area Situational Awareness.”
“Traditionally, security systems used to protect critical infrastructure assets have been implemented and managed separately. However as threats to critical infrastructure have evolved, so has the technology designed to guard against them in terms of both what it can do and how it is used,” the paper says. “A holistic approach is increasingly becoming a favored strategy for those involved in critical asset protection.”
According to Synectics, using a surveillance command and control platform, what used to be disparate systems can then be brought together and managed within a single, unified environment, adding that site systems that can be integrated include access control, intruder detection, virtual perimeter tripwires, different types of cameras, and emergency incident alarms. Incidents, anomalies or meter reading deviations from any number of subsystems can be identified as well, the paper notes.
It further cites some examples of how such unified platform can be applied to different use cases. Video, audio, PIR activations and other alarm inputs from analog and IP cameras located at different substations or operation rooms in a power distribution facility, for example, can be streamed directly to a central security management center to protect against potential breaches by, for example, thieves stealing copper wires.
In a water treatment plant, any abnormality picked up by the intruder detection and access control systems immediately alerts security teams by streaming live footage from cameras nearest the triggered alert zone. In an airport, data from baggage x-ray scanners, integrated with surveillance and communications systems, ensures that a live alert is prioritized on security control room video wall monitors in the event of an issue being logged by personnel in the screening area.
The paper also identifies points that security personnel should be aware of. These include ensuring system compatibility, identifying specific needs, and choosing the right camera for the right job.