This past year will be remembered for decades as a time when all our lives were turned upside down in what seem liked an instant. The spread of the coronavirus that began in Southeast Asia near the end of 2019 and then gradually worked its way across the globe over the first few months of 2020, brought much of normal, everyday life to a halt. Add the social unrest that followed in the wake of the death of George Floyd and the ongoing acrimony of the presidential election; it is safe to say this has been a year defined by struggle and strife.
However, as in the words of the old Rolling Stones song: Time waits for no one. The security industry, like many others, pressed on with business amid these challenges and quickly adapted to the new environment. Security has traditionally been thought of as a recession-resilient industry but even it saw its fair share of obstacles throughout 2020. From new applications for old technologies to new paradigms for corporate security and safety, 2020 will also likely leave an indelible mark on the industry for years to come.
In keeping with what has become an annual tradition at SecurityInfoWatch.com (SIW), here are the top 10 most-read stories of 2020:
1. Allied Universal acquires G4S
Although this occurred just earlier this month, the news of Allied Universal finally coming to terms with the G4S board on an acquisition price brought months of bidding for ownership of the guard services giant to a close. For those who are unfamiliar, Canada-based GardaWorld (Garda) initially approached G4S with an offer to buy the company in mid-June. Garda would subsequently revise its offer twice over the next several months, eventually agreeing to pay $3.8 billion for G4S but that too was rejected.
Rebuffed by the G4S board, Garda appealed directly to the company’s shareholders as part of a hostile takeover bid in October. Allied Universal entered the fray last month and offered to buy G4S for £3.25 billion ($4.22 billion) but that offer also fell short of what G4S leaders were looking for. G4S and Allied Universal eventually came to terms earlier this month on deal valued at £3.8 billion ($5 billion).
2. Securitas buys integration business of STANLEY Security in five countries
Securitas made headlines in September when it announced that it would be acquiring STANLEY Security’s electronic security businesses in Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, Singapore, and India for an estimated $64 million. For Securitas, the company said the deal aligned with its internal goals of doubling the size of its security solutions and electronic security business while also expanding the footprint and capabilities of its systems integration arm. STANLEY’s operations in these countries was significant and included approximately 580 workers, operating out of 20 branch offices. The business also has two alarm monitoring centers, one in Germany and one in Portugal. Total sales of the in-scope business totaled $85 million in 2019, mainly from installation sales, recurring monthly revenue and maintenance services.
3. Covid forces rescheduling, eventual cancelation of in-person ISC West 2020 event
The pandemic forced the cancellation of nearly every in-person event in the security industry this year except for those that took place before the virus took hold in the U.S. in early March. However, that does not mean there was a lack of news surrounding various shows, including the industry’s largest, ISC West. Avigilon became one of the first vendors to announce that it would not be attending the show in late February and that was soon followed by news that Johnson Controls had issued a ban on all non-essential domestic and international travel for its employees, casting doubt on the company’s attendance at the show. The show was later rescheduled until July and then again to October before eventually being converted to an online-only event. ISC West 2021 is currently scheduled to take place next July.
4. ADT reshapes its business
After spending the past several years building out its commercial portfolio, ADT continued to significantly reshape its business in 2021 by making several different key moves on the residential side. In January, the company acquired its largest independent dealer, Defenders, for $381 million. ADT would turn heads again in August when it revealed that Google would be acquiring a 6.6% of stake in the company in what would essentially be a deal that provides the tech giant, which has rolled out its’ own portfolio of residential security products under the Nest brand in recent years, with an entry point for professionally installed and monitored security equipment.
5. AI and Analytics Take Center Stage
One of the biggest buzzwords in security over the past few years has been artificial intelligence or AI, for short, which promises to bring levels of intelligence to video surveillance analytics that has never been possible. Much has been written about the capabilities presented by AI, Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) as the industry continues to examine the capabilities provided by these technologies today and how they could shape the future of the market. This article from the March issue of our sister publication, Security Business magazine, looks at how AI and specialty analytics are changing video surveillance and was one of our most read stories of the year.
6. Global Organizations Prepare for Covid-19
In February, even before the severity of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact had been realized, many organizations were already putting their business continuity plans into action. Given some of the virus outbreaks of the early 21st century, such as SARS and MERS, there was already a rough blueprint for businesses in how to respond to a contagion event. Unfortunately, these plans would have to be put into full effect the following month as Covid-19 began ravaging Europe and the U.S. This article examined the impact of the coronavirus on enterprise security operations and provided guidance on how organizations could keep their employees safe.
7. Real Words or Buzzwords?
Now in its third year, SIW contributor Ray Bernard’s ongoing “Real words or buzzwords?" series, which was recently recognized with two 2020 Azbee Excellence in Journalism awards – a regional Gold Award, and a national Bronze Award – continues to be one of the most frequented columns on our site. One entry in the series from the past year, a three-part series examining H.264 and I-frames, P-frames and B-frames also happened to be among our most read articles. You can check out Part 1 here, followed up by Part 2 here and Part 3 here.
8. Dealing with Social Unrest
Aside from the impacts of Covid-19, security teams have also faced unprecedented challenges this year from incidents of social unrest that have occurred across the U.S. and even globally. What began as protests in some cities quickly turned to looting and even acts of violence. This article from the September-October issue of our other sister publication, Security Technology Executive magazine, examines the effects of trying to confront both the coronavirus and social unrest at the same time.
9. Trump Administration Ramps Up Pressure on Hikvision
After prohibiting government agencies from buying their technology and placing them on a government blacklist, the Trump administration continued to ramp up pressure on Hikvision and other Chinese companies in 2020. In June, the Department of Defense placed Hikvision along with 19 other firms on a list that identified them as being either owned or controlled by the Chinese military. As a result, President Donald Trump in November issued an executive order that prohibits U.S. companies and individuals from investing in companies on this very list.
10. Retail Under Siege
If the impacts to in-person shopping from the pandemic were not bad enough for retailers, brick-and-mortar stores also suffered significant damage and losses because of this year’s social unrest incidents. To add insult to injury, it appears that Covid-19 has done little to abate the ongoing scourge of organized retail crime (ORC), which according to a recent study from the National Retail Federation (NRF), cost retailers an average of nearly $720,000 per $1 billion in sales in the past year. The combination of all of these factors means that retailers will likely have to continue to navigate rough waters from a security perspective for the foreseeable future.
Joel Griffin is the Editor-in-Chief of SecurityInfoWatch.com and a veteran security journalist. You can reach him at [email protected].
