I had the opportunity to participate on a panel at SIA’s Government Summit in June entitled “Convergence of Physical and Logical Security.” The premise of the panel was that the Internet of Everything (or Internet of Things, if you will) is changing the paradigm of data that future security systems will have to manage in order to provide truly effective security. I took this as an opportunity to look at the whole topic of convergence with a fresh perspective.
If the end-point is the explosion of network devices and available data — what we are coming to know as big data — it is useful to think about “convergence” as a journey to that end. Thus, the beginning of this journey can come from a position I’ll call “little data,” or the information from a closed security system such as cameras, storage, video management, and often loosely or tightly integrated access control.
In many instances, little data has gotten a little smarter with the addition of video analytics. Because the sheer amount of video is too much for most to watch in real-time, analytics has found its stride in calling attention to event types that have been designated for alert or that are simply abnormal. Operators can focus on those events with something closer to full attention, or marked events can be pulled from storage for review.
Security data has gotten to be a bit “bigger” with the addition of integrated security platforms and PSIM systems. Data that was loosely and often poorly correlated — think VMS and access control managers — is now more tightly bound together with unified systems. Some manufacturers decided that the most effective way to do this was to stop relying on related party integrations and to start building those platforms themselves. Video manufacturers have branched into access control, and access control manufacturers increasingly couple video into their own systems. PSIM vendors have expanded the scope with hundreds of integrations linked via applications programming interfaces (APIs) to effectively be vendor-agnostic in offering a single unified systems interface.
Smarter, Bigger — Now a Little More Logical
Now we are at a crossroads — the confluence of the physical and logical worlds. We have already seen this evolution in access control where active directories and enterprise databases supplement the physical access control credential. Physical access may lead to network access, or it may be the result of an authorization process occurring in an interaction with an integrated directory or database. Increasingly, both physical and logical access require multi-factor authentication, often involving a biometric.
Many still insist on an absolute separation of the network infrastructure between physical security and everything else. Isn’t it ironic that little concern is expressed over the use of virtual servers or virtual storage at the enterprise level, yet the virtual use of network infrastructure is thought to be too risky?
Nevertheless, the confluence of all types of data continues as those who really understand the potential have begun to deploy broad-based situational awareness systems, melding feeds from the outside world with the integrated information from their own security and related systems. Such outside information can include weather, natural disasters, terror events, political crises, fires, accidents and more. Impacts go beyond traditional security, as the analysis of such data surfaces potential impacts in areas such as operations, personnel and supply chain. In the process, the definition of “security” is broadened.
Ultimately, as the science of “big data’ is broadened, fueled by the explosion of network-enable devices, situational awareness becomes far more encompassing and proactive. Better decision making and resource allocation is the result of improved threat analysis, identification of trends, and higher levels of confidence. Today’s “little data” is just one piece of the puzzle!
Ray Coulombe is Founder and Managing Director of SecuritySpecifiers.com and RepsForSecurity.com. He can be reached at [email protected], through LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/raycoulombe or followed on Twitter @RayCoulombe.
