Spring is here. And it could not have come soon enough, after a particularly difficult winter for most of the U.S. Record-setting snow falls, flooding, and extreme cold temperatures plagued businesses, homeowners and travelers from November through March. Businesses shut down, flights were grounded, and many people were forced to hunker down and stay home.
The 2015 RSA Conference provides security professionals access to myriad keynotes, educational sessions and solutions for today’s cybersecurity risks. Whether you’re headed to San Francisco for the conference April 20-24 or you’re observing cybersecurity trends from your office, here is a sampling of some of the trends, products and services showcased at this year’s event.
Speaking of a supply chain security challenge, one of United Iron and Metal’s warehouses is outdoors in a hard-scrabble urban neighborhood of Baltimore, and it sprawls over more than 20 acres with one boundary chockablock against railroad tracks. Unwanted visitors were a relentless headache... until John Creighton, the director of security at United Iron and Metal, did something about it.
Walk through the show floor at ISC West in Las Vegas next month and you’ll see hundreds of security products peddled by vendors wanting to sell you the “latest and greatest” in security technology. But sometimes, you don’t need technology as much as you need someone to sit down with you and have a frank and honest conversation about what you should or should not install in your enterprise. Then you can talk technology, right? Of course, it all depends upon your situation, your environment and the risks that you are trying to mitigate, but who wants to be sold something that they don’t need or can’t use?
Though biometric analytics have been around for a few years now, Apple and Samsung’s recent introduction of fingerprint readers to their newest mobile devices prove that biometric security systems are going to be more and more commonplace in the public sector. The research organization Goode Intelligence estimates that biometric authentication will be on most mobile devices by the end of 2015 and that by 2019, it will be used by 5.5 billion people worldwide. Familiarity with biometric analytics means ease of use for employees and consumers alike.
In the midst of mergers and acquisitions, there is still plenty of innovation and energy within the security industry, and enterprise security executives are in a position to benefit. As more and more end users attend the annual ISC West conference April 15-17 in Las Vegas, more focused solutions find their way to the forefront of booths, as manufacturers outline not only the technical aspects but the integration possibilities, risk mitigation benefits and problem-solving features of their new solutions for active end users.
In 2009, Heartland Payment Systems announced that it had suffered a devastating breach: 134 million credit cards were exposed through SQL Injection attacks used to install spyware on Heartland’s data systems. The company processes payments for debit, prepaid and credit cards, in addition to online payments and checks and payroll services.
Security executives in property management secure commercial buildings in a variety of ways, depending on location, risk, whether the building is public, private or semi-public, what sort of asset is being protected, hours of operation, and the like. Protecting buildings from risks such as theft, loitering, vandalism, rioting and workplace violence comes with a variety of unique challenges and can take a lot of forethought, planning and creativity.
For the 2014 Winter Olympics, a 50-person contingent from the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA), including several members of the board of directors, spent 14 days attending various events and competitions in Sochi, Russia. For Tiger Shaw, two-time Olympian and now President and CEO of the USSA, this meant the need to call in some expert help.
You have been with your current organization for more than 10 years leading the corporate security function, having conceived and built the program, hired staff around the world and integrated the department to being a trusted advisor to senior management. Since this is your second career, you are now reaching a point that you would like to retire and pursue other passions and personal interests. After sitting down and discussing this with your boss, you realize that he or she and the management team are concerned about the lack of a succession plan for your replacement. Their position is: While your second level staff is very good operationally, they are not under serious consideration for your role, and HR will be looking outside the company for your replacement.