SubscribeIt was a long journey that culminated in this year's best-in-class awards in Las Vegas and Toronto for DSC internet alarm products.
As early as 1997 DSC engineers and product specialists were talking about internet and network-based digital security alarms that would offer better system supervision, faster response, cost efficiencies and cohesion with IT security efforts.
Today the convergence of information and physical security is being driven by several powerful forces. These include interdependency, efficiency and organizational simplification, security awareness, regulations, directives, standards and the evolving global communications infrastructure.
By employing digital processes, non-linear routing configurations, fibre-optic cabling and other modern advances, the internet has had or will have a dominating impact on the communication infrastructure in every modern economic region. There is therefore no surprise that advantages would be found for alarm communications and that physical security would eventually converge with information security. Indeed Laurie Aron of Software House (and the Open Security Exchange) goes as far as saying: “There is no such thing as security if they’re separate; one is increasingly dependent on the other.” This was echoed by Byrne Ghavalas in Secure Computing who wrote: “If you can physically touch a system, then there is no security.”
Editor Shawna McAlearney of SearchSecurity.com recently cited a Forrester Research study in concluding that system value and effectiveness will both improve when organizations link IT credentials to building access. She reviews a list of cost advantages including password reset reductions, efficient granting and revocations of building and computer access, correlating physical and cyber breach incident data for investigations, fraud detection, risk management planning and perimeter security improvements.
Forrester’s Steve Hunt predicts that private and public sector spending on security in Europe and North America will increase to at least US$1.1 billion this year; up from $506 million last year. Undoubtedly the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 is a key contributor. It mandates a common identification credential for physical and IT access for all employees of federal agencies and government contractors.
Several other regulations are also making an impact in the USA. These include the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. These require that sensitive data must be protected both physically and electronically and that control mechanisms must be audited.
It seems like only a question of time before convergence will spread far and wide. There are already global security standards (BS7799/ISO17799) recognizing security convergence. According to internetworldstats.com, 889 million people use the internet, nearly one-seventh of world population. Penetration is highest in North America at 67%+. Total numbers are highest in Asia (302 million) and Europe (260 million). The fastest usage growth in the past five years has taken place in the Middle East (267%), Latin America (211%) and Africa (198%).
The T-LinkTM family of products from DSC allow alarm communications to travel as digital information over intranet and internet networks to monitoring stations. There are now an estimated one billion personal computers in use globally. Of those used in businesses, 92% are connected to some kind of network.
According to DSC Product Manager Sascha Kaylau the first T-Link products were installed throughout a multi-branch banking system in Tennessee, USA, allowing the company to use its existing computer network to communicate with a proprietary alarm monitoring station. If there were breaches at any of the bank’s numerous branches or bank machines (in 10 states), the monitoring station triggered the appropriate response by police, fire or emergency officials. “This eliminated the cost of hundreds of telephone lines,” notes Kylau.
T-Link’s network capabilities also provide information that helps with management of the business (eg. comings, goings, adding or deleting users). This is of interest to governments, retail chains, school boards and all kinds of financial institutions. DSC case studies are now being collected on a growing list of installations all over the world.
Sensitive data is protected from hijacking by thieves during transmission. The encryption standard used is AES 128, which is accepted worldwide as the most secure means for protecting data traveling via the internet. Some security systems have slow or no built-in -alert if the communication line fails accidentally or is cut by burglars. The T-Link TL250 can send a signal at 90 second intervals to check connection integrity and go immediately into alert mode if it is compromised. Also, the internet is fast. In emergencies such as fire, burglary and personal injury, every passing second can become important.
DSC is also introducing a lower cost residential T-Link product and a model that allows installers to adapt any control panel on the market (with ‘Contact ID’) for internet alarm communications. These systems work seamlessly with Sur-GardTM, the leading global monitoring station solution also made by DSC, and with the latest generations of the legendary DSC PowerSeriesTM and MAXSYS® security control panels. Together these products provide an integrated package and ultimate peace of mind for customers.
“We are way ahead of the rest of the security industry on internet security alarm products,” says Kylau, “because we’re always thinking about tomorrow.”
Written by Bruce Nagy,
Manager, Marketing Communications & Services,
DSC
