How New Technologies and Convergence Enhance Situational Awareness

Facial recognition, biometrics, deep learning, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and robotics. These are just some of the many trends and themes today’s leaders — in various security, IT and business positions — are evaluating as part of the growing idea of the “connected world.”

The IoT revolves around increased machine-to-machine communication; it’s built on cloud computing and networks of data-gathering sensors; it’s mobile, virtual and instantaneous — all things today’s businesses and business leaders look to incorporate daily to further streamline operations and efficiency. The IoT is projected to grow at a rapid rate, making various devices from streetlights to grids “smart.” Gartner forecasted that 6.4 billion connected items would be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from 2015, and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020.

The societal growth of at-your-fingertips accessibility and mobile capabilities increases convenience, but with this connectivity comes an expanded risk for threats and breaches. Security is no longer limited to just physical assets; network elements must also be considered to ensure comprehensive coverage throughout an organization's infrastructure.

It’s a fact: Operational technology, information technology and physical security devices on the network are potential risks and therefore, security needs to be looked at holistically since it can be difficult to determine where an attack may originate. Therefore, the correlation of events across these systems is very beneficial as it allows enterprises to look at security across all platforms. At the same time, organizational convergence is just as important. Cyber, IT and traditional security teams need to combine forces to enhance risk mitigation.

However, the fusion of technology and internal leadership creates a surplus of information and users seek to gain more insights from this combined data to enhance security and business operations alike. We've discussed the benefits of leveraging video and security data for marketing, customer engagement and manufacturing efficiencies, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. New use cases are being rolled out on a daily basis as users find innovative ways to leverage the intelligence gleaned from this data. Convergence is really only the beginning.

Here are some of today’s most in-demand emerging solutions, processes and intelligence-gathering efforts that are propelling new levels of intelligence and helping build enhanced situational awareness.

Biometrics

Biometrics is increasingly popular with an array of organizations that seek to optimize security with another level of access control. With the wide range of available biometrics, such as retina, fingerprint and facial recognition, organizations can quickly identify individuals and allow users to conduct forensic searches to locate a specific individual across several locations (for example, imagine an airport searching for a known criminal across multiple facilities.) With ever-growing risk profiles, biometrics will continue to gain traction well into 2017 and beyond, especially in light of the fact that the technology has matured significantly — and proven its value — since it was first brought to the market.

Deep Learning

There is significant interest in deploying technologies that help organizations gain more situational awareness and increase insight into the inner workings of their day-to-day functions. The combination of multiple processes, solutions and technologies, as well as aggregating information from various sources helps organizations gain the most accurate information available about a situation at any given time. Technology tools are a valuable component of building this awareness. Surveillance analytics and video intelligence, for example, allow officials to quickly pinpoint when an individual breaches a protected area and can also be used in post-event analysis to determine trends.

Over the next 10 years, we will see more intelligent systems helping operators to process and assess security, operational and business situations. The evolution of deep learning will change how security personnel analyze data — generating new data points from video analytics (including scene object analysis, tracking, face recognition and others). More and more systems will be driven by data analysis to identify risk and help operators and responders better assess a situation and automate response. This approach will boost efficiency and effectiveness across an enterprise.

Network and Device Security

For end users, the term “security” no longer means only protecting the perimeter of a building; it also involves securing corporate networks and sensitive data. This trend is driven by a change in organizational threats. In the near future, businesses as a whole will be much more focused on IT and OT threats, a growing paradigm that challenges business and security leaders to stay one step ahead of crime and fraud trends.

With thousands of new network-enabled devices added each year, an abundance of new data is created — information that is vulnerable to the same threats as any other networked device. In fact, cybersecurity is one of the primary challenges facing modern businesses. Recent results from the Security Executive Council’s Security Barometer Polls found that survey respondents reported cybercrime as the top risk facing their organizations.

Over the course of the past year, we’ve discussed the convergence of physical, IT and OT within organizations - possibly even more than we’ve discussed how technology is converging. There are significant benefits to this level of collaboration; it is crystal clear that this approach benefits the greater purpose of security as well as overall strategies for continued success in combatting threats.

An ongoing dialogue between enterprise security teams is necessary to help gain a greater knowledge of how to best mitigate today’s most prevalent threats — whether considered IT or physical security (in some cases, it can be both!) In the coming year, stakeholders must continue to communicate closely to assist in determining vulnerabilities in a more proactive manner.

Collaboration

At first glance, these new solutions may seem siloed, but think again. The fact that these are all IP-enabled and can be integrated into a single command-and-control system allows users to see data from all these sources in a single pane-of-glass view. New levels of situational awareness are gained by correlating data from these systems. When an overlaying platform connects these systems together, there is more information from which to “connect the dots” and identify risks or trends.

At the same time, internal departments that were once siloed (think of the old days when the traditional security, operational and IT teams didn’t communicate; it really wasn’t that long ago) now need to collaborate closely to mitigate modern risks. Think about it: An IT or OT threat could begin as a physical security breach, for example, creating an even larger issue for an organization. Close cooperation across the enterprise can help reduce the chances of this occurring. If your CSO is not advocating for communication across departments, you are not providing your organization with a comprehensive, holistic security program.

Going Further

Throughout the remainder of the year and into 2018, we will continue to see Big Data analysis and IoT-powered devices allow for the collection of myriad data points across systems, services and devices. This process will allow businesses to investigate threats in a more intelligent manner. It will be the organizations that generate actionable intelligence from collected data points that will be firmly positioned to achieve their strategic intelligence and business objectives in the coming years.

In my experience, I’ve found customers find value in the adoption of software-based solutions that allow data to be correlated from multiple systems to deliver increased situational awareness. Organizations of all markets and sizes are interested in improving security by fusing data from a wide range of devices, including video, audio, social media, access control, building management, traffic control and intrusion detection. Take the industrial controls market, for example. OT is used to monitor or alter the physical state of a systems, such as a control system at a power station or the control network for a rail system. By aggregating data from multiple sensors including OT systems into one situational awareness platform, stakeholders enable efficient data analysis, gaining the ability to share information easily within and across agencies to facilitate timely response and investigation.

Today’s security and IT system architectures are complex and often incorporate data from multiple sources. As today’s deployments expand and new technologies are incorporated, it is important to carefully consider planning and design, as well as find ways to work closely with your integration and consulting partners to realize immediate and continued success with your technology deployments while strengthening your overall security posture.

About the Author: Ayal Vogel is Vice President of International Sales at Verint