Remember back when we were kids and heard the fire alarm bell in school? On cue, we lined up in an orderly manner and dutifully marched out of the classroom single file, no talking, and keep your hands to yourself. The super loud fire alarm bell and the discipline of the fire drill was all that we needed to know to be safe. How times have changed!
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority in California provides public transportation for more than 140,000 passengers a day. The VTA has approximately 1,700 employees supporting three bus divisions and a light rail division. The transportation system consists of about 600 low-floor buses that service 326 square miles of urbanized area daily and a light rail system which operates more than 100 low-floor light rail vehicles across 42.2 miles of rail.
As CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the organization charged with overseeing the reliability and security of the North American grid, I am deeply concerned about the shifting risk landscape facing the power industry. Conventional risks include randomized events such as extreme weather and equipment failures, while the emerging risks that could result from the intentional actions of unknown adversaries are asymmetrical and much less known. We are often left to imagine scenarios that might occur from such attacks and prepare to avoid or mitigate the consequences.
Cloud computing, a maturing IT strategy, now has moved decisively into physical security, including video surveillance, with a surprising litany of business benefits. It turns out, for many, to be an essential tool to meet that equally essential “do more with less” attitude, which continues to spur consolidation, outsourced business processes and an accelerated investment in technologies that shifts costs from large capital expenditures to operational expenses. Depending on how high in the cloud, this can include infrastructure, platforms and applications now delivered in the form of services.
“Observe and report” security officers have gained popularity with private security firms over the past five years. These officers, when faced with danger or a need for physical intervention, are supposed to radio the police or authorities trained to handle dangerous situations. They do not intervene.
The ability to design and install a truly comprehensive, long-term security solution for your organization depends on the technology of more than one manufacturer.
Four years after a student gunned down 32 people in a rampage, Virginia Tech University officials remain adamant that they did nothing wrong by waiting two hours to warn the campus that a gunman was on the loose. Virginia Tech says it acted reasonably based on standards in place at the time and doesn’t deserve the $55,000 fine that the U.S. Department of Education imposed on the school for violating federal law with its response the day of the shootings. As of press time, they had yet to decide on whether or not to appeal the fine.
Security Officers may be some of the most difficult employees to motivate. Many, by their own admission are either finishing out their careers, waiting for a better opportunity, or just plain lazy.
When it comes to the security director – security integrator relationship, it can often look like a “he said/she-said” situation. The phrase “There’s two sides to every story,” applies as well. In fact some – not all – past relationships have been just that.
Amajor theme at this month’s ISC West in Las Vegas is the continued movement of security applications to the Internet, what some call “in the cloud” and others label Software as a Service or SaaS.
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