While the EMEA market has a unique set of needs, none compares with the need to protect people and assets against physical and cyber threats. Solutions offered by security vendors evolve around that need and are equipped with advanced features to better protect users.
While the EMEA market has a unique set of needs, none compares with the need to protect people and assets against physical and cyber threats that have become more rampant of recent. Solutions offered by security vendors evolve around that need and are equipped with advanced features to better protect users.
Concealed weapons detection
Needless to say, terrorism is a real threat in Europe, as demonstrated by a recent spate of incidents in the U.K. While preventing terrorism can be difficult, efforts are still being made to detect possible threats as early as possible.
Digital Barriers for example has the ThruVIS solution that detects concealed weapons by picking up the specific terahertz energy they transmit.
“The solution looks like a computer box, and it’s mobile; you can put it wherever you want,” said Marie Clutterbuck, Marketing Director at Digital Barriers. “In the face of an increase in terrorism, people now want to protect soft targets like train stations and stadiums, and it's not possible to do that with traditional airport security because of the queue time. With ThruVIS, there's no queue … people just walk past it, they don't have to stop.”
Behavioral analytics
In addition, analytics have become more advanced and mature to detect suspicious activities. Facial recognition ALPR aside, behavioral analytics have also gained traction. “One of the things we've got now, with the integration with Xtralis, is to take advantage of their video analytics technologies, intelligent detection of behaviors of people within a scene. So we can actually see where people within the scene are loitering, and the software can pick up that behavior and send it as an alarm,” said Daniel Wan, Channel Marketing Leader for Security and Fire for UK and Ireland,
Honeywell Home and Building Technologies. “Whereas previously, you need to have that technology installed into a separate server, what we are able to do now is install that technology directly onto the camera itself. That's one of the benefits of bringing the Xtralis business within the Honeywell business.”
PSIM integrated with drones
Once an incident or attack happens, dealing with it in the fastest time is of utmost importance. In this regard event management software like PSIM can play a key role. More and more, PSIMs are integrated with advanced technologies to deal with a situation. These even include drones, which can serve two purposes: to detect if there is really an intrusion, or to take down a bad drone.
“We are looking at new technologies to integrate with our platform. We are doing more with drones. The drone threat is a very real threat today. Some people are using drones in a negative way. We can use radio frequency, video analytics or radar to detect drones, but also how do you overcome a drone,” said Adlan Hussain, VP of Marketing at
CNL. “We can use anti-drone techniques. Being able to send up another drone to take down the drone is one technique. Being able to jam the signal is another. Creating a virtual wall to be able to block drones from coming is another technique.”
Radar
Perimeter protection has also become a huge demand for EMEA users, especially those operating critical infrastructure. While sensors, detectors and video surveillance play an important role in perimeter defense, more and more users are considering radar due to its performance and lowering prices.
"We have small, compact radars for those looking beyond the fence, to look before somebody approaches the perimeter,” said Mike Parry, Director of Sales for EMEA at FiberSensys. “It's an option for higher security applications and compliments our complete range of perimeter intrusion sensors Some Radar solutions can be expensive, but again it's how it's applied, what are you are trying to use it for. If you are trying to use it to look out 5 to 10 kilometers out in the ocean, then it's expensive, but if you are using it around smaller facilities then it becomes more cost-effective.”
“Axis' long-term vision has been to make networks smarter by connecting more and more devices simply and economically to IP networks. With the release of our new IP radar product later this year, AXIS D2050, we believe the affordable price point will encourage adoption of radar technology across a wider array of customers” said Atul Rajput, Regional Director for Northern Europe at
Axis Communications.
While radar technology is new for Axis, it retains their open and interoperable approach, allowing it to be seamlessly integrated with IP cameras and VMS solutions for both detection and verification. “When the radar detects someone coming in, it will send a command to a PTZ to spin around, look at the area and track the individual,” Rajput added.
Cybersecurity
Finally, the “securing your security devices” topic has gained a lot of attention lately, in the face of hackers exploiting vulnerabilities in networked security devices to intrude into systems or launch DDoS attacks. Vendors are therefore hardening their solutions or systems to counter those attacks.
“More and more things are sitting on the network which provides more convenience, but that convenience has to be balanced with security. It's relatively okay to open my garage door from my phone, but if someone can gain access to that, that's not a good thing,” said Stuart Bettle, Video Product Marketing Manager for EMEA at
Tyco Security Products. “When we are protecting people’s businesses, premises and homes, we as manufacturers owe it to them to be designing and manufacturing our products using secure development and production processes that will minimize vulnerabilities in our products.”
“One of the biggest things that we've seen over the last nine months has been an increase in cybersecurity threats. We have done a great deal in terms of educating on the issues behind cybersecurity and how it can affect customers, working with customers to look at their own security practices to combat cyberattacks,” said Simon Cook, Sales Engineering Manager for EMEA and APAC at
Genetec. “We have enhanced the methods of encryption within our products. We used to utilize SSL but now this can be hacked, so instead we use TLS. We spend a lot of time and effort focusing on product hardening, doing a lot more penetration testing, making sure that every part of the system has a level of protection.”
“When we were building access control systems 20 years ago nobody worried about cybersecurity. The products weren't built originally with that in mind. Certainly, we are now seeing that as a driver from the end users who are much more concerned about the security of their security systems. So we as a manufacturer have to go back and look at our products, making sure we're designing them without those flaws,” Kim Loy, Director of Marketing at Vanderbilt Industries. “We do work with a third-party company now that does penetration testing on all of our products, and the other thing is making sure that the users of the products are better educated.”