Traditional security design can be coupled with convergent IT and security technologies and applications to significantly strengthen the security investment.
Perimeter security is usually considered the outermost ring of security in depth, which follows a deterrence-through-design methodology that includes fences or walls, bollards, barriers, cameras, height-detectors at the gates, and lighting. The deterrent element of this design is presumed to be frustration or intimidation of the trivial (petty criminal looking for an easy way in), and delay of the serious (professional criminal, or terrorist infiltrator with an agenda). Using a threat-driven perspective, and taking into account todays terrorist tactics, two additional needs for perimeter security immediately become paramount: real-time detection, and real-time immediate - assessment of the threat. Simply using the technologies outlined above, even with a well-trained guard force, is not sufficient. On the other hand, using a network of robust, day-night fixed outdoor cameras, tied to long-range Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras, enabled with a video intelligent-application, we have a marriage of IT/convergence technology with physical security measures that, by an order of magnitude, strengthens the perimeter.
The application platform used to integrate intelligence-enabled sensors, cameras, and ground-radar, and the displays used to present the information to the operators, evolved from the traditional security operations center used to direct operations. In the old C&C Center design, display monitors use sequential CCTV switchers, rotating through potentially hundreds of CCTV cameras and showing them as multiple camera scenes on a single monitor with perhaps a dozen or more monitors in the room. This is illusory security; in reality, no operator can reliably focus on the scenes displayed for a significant amount of time.
Convergent IT/Security transforms the nature and utility of the C&C Center. Using intelligent video, monitors can be replaced by flat video walls that can be used to display computer screens and video-enabled conference calls, as well as three-dimensional displays of the facility and its environment. Gone are multiple camera scenes they are no longer needed. With the CCTV camera activated as a sensor/detection device, enabled by a robust, server-based application centralized within a hardened equipment room, a video display comes up only when the camera detects an intrusion and an alarm is sent to the C&C Center. On a three-dimensional (3D) display of the facility (inside and out), the location of the intrusion and camera field of view (FOV) glows red; only then does the operator need to react, bring up the display, and using a Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) in the vicinity investigate and assess the threat, in real time. Sophisticated intelligent video software will detect and generate alerts for multiple alarms and prioritize them. In this way, a security crisis can be efficiently managed by trained security personnel, much as a Combat Controller manages force-protection, or live battle developments within the Combat Control (C&C) room on a naval ship. This capability, with the technology available today, enables security managers, guard force personnel on the perimeter, and first-responders to control crisis situations in the homeland just as efficiently.
Using convergent technologies within the perimeter, the insider threat can be addressed, head-on. Once inside sensitive areas, electro-mechanical entry technology such as magnetic swipe access can be augmented by facial geometry/recognition or biometric access applications that provide the crucial authentication needed to verify access into sensitive areas. Insider-enabled clandestine access into sensitive areas is significantly reduced using convergent technology to supplement traditional locks and alarms.
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