Security Magazine

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?

Launched in 2007, Operation Shield is an initiative of the Atlanta Police Foundation and the Atlanta Police Department (APD) to generate effective communication between the APD and both the public and private sectors and create a force multiplier for crime prevention and emergency preparedness. Through the Operation Shield Video Integration Center (VIC), APD officers are able to use software to monitor video feeds from both public and private sector cameras.

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.

Organized retail crime. Crowd management. Emergency preparedness. Disaster recovery. Active shooter. Welcome to retail shopping these days.

Increased security measures and state-of-the-art security systems have become a common theme in today’s education industry. As threats become more apparent, security directors are turning to technology to help prevent or mitigate an event. New facilities are being equipped with cutting edge technology to ensure the safety of students and staff.

Property managers at residential communities wear a lot of hats from filling vacancies and negotiating and enforcing leases, to maintaining the building and property, and securing the premises. To be successful, property managers need the support of their entire team – including security. A comprehensive physical security program at a residential property should extend far beyond the typical security responsibilities to also include a strong focus on customer service. Security officers should contribute to an environment that makes tenants and visitors feel safe and welcome, and encourages people to consider the community as their future home.

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.

Congress has proposed dozens of bills related to cybersecurity topics over the last decade, all of which went nowhere. That is, until recently.

Over the last several years, it has become commonplace for the media to publish information based on electronic materials that have been removed or copied either by organizational insiders and/or external people or groups. The publication of this type of material has impacted individuals, public and private organizations and various government agencies. While it is important for a free society to have the benefits of a free press serving as one of the checks and balances to protect citizens from abusive practices, we may have reached a point where we should re-examine how this is practiced. Are our criminal and civil statues effective on these issues?

From big box retailers and gourmet coffee shops to oil and gas companies, software firms and major automakers, U.S.-based businesses continue to expand their reach with global operations, all of which require the same high standard of security services as they have implemented stateside.

I recently interviewed Marc Goodman, founder of the Future Crimes Institute and author of the recently published book “Future Crimes: Everything is Connected, Everyone is Vulnerable, and What We Can Do About It.” In his book, Goodman sets forth with great precision the frightening extent to which current and emerging technologies are harming national and corporate security, putting people’s lives at risk, eroding privacy, and even altering our perceptions of reality.

Want happy employees? It’s more than the occasional catered office lunch. It’s providing an environment where employees can be productive, collaborate with colleagues and find creative ways to power through their to-do lists. Mobile devices play a primary role in this movement, but so have the widespread adoption of public and private cloud applications, which have provided workers access to their files, and each other, anywhere, anytime and from any device.

The number of data breaches tracked in 2014 hit a record high of 783, according to a report from the Identity Theft Resource Center, sponsored by IDT911. This represents a 27.5-percent increase over the number of breaches reported in 2013, and an increase of 18.3 percent over the previous high of 662 breaches tracked in 2010.

Bullying has become a hot topic in the last couple of years. Whether it’s because society has changed what qualifies as acceptable behavior in the workplace, on campus, and in schools or whether it’s because we are more aware of the negative psychological effects that bullying can have during all phases of life has not been determined. But the fact remains that we are becoming more cognizant of bullying and its effects on not only the target of the bullying, but also the bystanders who witness such behavior.

While security departmentsare more concerned with disruptions to patient care and C-level executives are focused on hospital administrations’ understanding of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regulations, but hospital security decision-makers are focused on patients’ and officers’ safety overall.

For data security, 2015 is predicted to be as bad or worse as 2014, as more sensitive and confidential information and transactions are moved to the digital space and become vulnerable to attack, according to The Ponemon Institute’s study 2014: A Year of Mega Breaches.

The Fourth Annual Security 500 Conference West will be held at The Four Seasons Hotel in Palo Alto on May 21. Security magazine is once again the exclusive media sponsor.

 While the global business environment in 2015 is perceived to be somewhat less risky for organizations than it was in the last two years, business leaders are still more likely to invest in additional risk management resources this year, according to Protiviti and North Carolina State University’s ERM Initiative’s report Executive Perspectives on Top Risks for 2015.  

Tokyo tops the rankings for overall safest city this year, according to The Economist’s report: The Safe Cities Index 2015: Assessing Urban Security in the Digital Age. By ranking 50 cities under four main categories: digital security, health security, infrastructure safety and personal safety, the report found that the world’s most populous city is also the safest in the Index, especially with preparations underway for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Fortune 1000 companies are emphasizing new privacy initiatives this year, increasing annual privacy budgets to $3 billion in 2015. According to Linda McReynolds, a senior attorney at Marashlian & Donahue, LLC, the CommLaw Group, enterprises can be better positioned to weather unintended data breach emergencies by following these five tips.

New research shows a pattern of under-reporting of on-campus sexual assaults by universities and colleges across the nation, and some schools have continued to under-report even after being fined for violations of federal law, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association.

Your insurer is your partner in the risk business. The more insurers understand how security products can impact risk mitigation, the more effectively they will be able to price premiums. Your company’s insurance rates are commensurate with your risk exposure,” says Neil Lakomiak, Business Development Director, Building and Life Safety Technologies for UL LLC.