- Schools take steps to tighten security - "...a virtual security guard that grants or denies people access to the building based on whether they are registered sex offenders."
- Efficiency, high-tech tools mark new year - "'e' is not just for effort, but also for efficiency."
- Carnegie Mellon System Thwarts Internet Eavesdropping - "A user who thinks he is linked to an airport or coffee shop 'hot spot,' for instance, might actually be linked to a laptop of someone just a few seats away."
- Cleveland school security connect to police dispatch - "Officers in zone cars can listen and respond immediately to a school."
- New security measures in place in Manchester Local Schools - "He was impersonating a sheriff deputy at the (local) McDonalds prior to this..."
- Homeland Integrated Security Systems Expects Sales Boom Following Passage of House Resolution 3179 - “Being added to the GSA Schedule and GSA Advantage has really opened a lot of doors for our company.”
Showing posts with label guns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guns. Show all posts
9.02.2008
School's starting again; how's your security?
With the new school year starting up, various articles and blog posts have shown up on the radar indicating that 2008 may be the year of the security-conscious campus. The stories are linked below:
4.23.2008
Fear and Learning On Campus
Los Angeles
LAST week, as I was editing my student film, my eyes wandered to the monitor of a nearby student. She had a gun in her movie, I noticed. I was impressed by her ambition. She had obviously done a lot of work — paperwork.
Since the shootings at Virginia Tech a year ago, our school has made it as difficult as possible for students to put guns in their films. Joe Wallenstein, who oversees film production by students, explained that using fake weapons could be misperceived by passers-by, and misunderstanding could lead to calamity. Just days ago, the faculty banned all guns in first-semester student films and mandated that higher-level students attend a police firearms training session before using fake guns, and under many circumstances pay a police officer $450 to oversee their productions.
One of my classmates avoided the permitting process by replacing a gun in his script with a banana, turning his Western-themed cowboy film into a slapstick comedy. In his in-class critique session, the professor told him that the banana “does not work.”
Many other universities around the country are also trying to balance freedom and safety. At Harvard, a dormitory that had prided itself on not having a security officer now has one. Dorm residents protested, but the college stood firm, insisting that the freedom of movement they had lost was secondary to their safety.
Stanford, for its part, still has no professional dormitory guards, but it is developing an ID-card-based access system that is meant to eventually include all campus buildings.
Emergency text message systems are becoming increasingly common, and many colleges now require students to submit their cellphone numbers. A friend at Florida State University complained to me that he recently received the same emergency message several times, warning about a “suspicious package” in the parking garage. The message did not specify which garage, so students avoided all of them. The package turned out to be a briefcase left on the car of a high school student whose nickname, A-Bomb, was inscribed on the exterior. Whoops.
I have lately heard classmates apologize in advance for potentially disturbing content in their movies, or crack jokes to avert suspicion that they may be emotionally troubled. Our teachers encourage us to be “edgy” (it sells) but we are also aware that, since Virginia Tech, stepping over that edge into the realm of “disturbing” could land you in the dean’s office.
I admit I was startled when, looking over that young woman’s shoulder, I saw that the gun in her film was being aimed at a student behind a desk begging for her life. Can it be a good idea to present school shootings as entertainment?
The filmmaker explained that the story was about a student who resisted peer pressure to skip class on what turned out to be the day of a school shooting. Her intent was to reveal how good intentions (not skipping class) can end up being a mistake because of forces beyond your control. My worry is that because of forces beyond her control, her movie could end up like “Oldboy,” a violent South Korean film that won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2004, and then helped inspire Seung-Hui Cho to carry out the Virginia Tech massacre.
Freedom and safety are becoming increasingly difficult to balance, it’s plain to see. But when I consider that more than 29,000 students have bravely returned to classes at Virginia Tech this year, I’m heartened.
12.07.2007
Mall security: Where do we stand?
Securityinfowatch.com has a good article on mall security in light of the recent events in the Omaha mall tragedy.
Mall security: Where do we stand?
Following the Omaha mall incident, an overview of where mall security stands todayGeoff Kohl, editor
SecurityInfoWatch.com
On Wednesday afternoon, an apparently troubled young man opened fire upon customers and employees at the Westroads mall in Omaha, Nebraska. Eight customers and employees were dead, and another five injured before the gunman took his own life. The incident seemed early similar to a shooting at a Salt Lake City mall almost a year earlier, which had ended with a law enforcement officer gunning down the shooter before more loss of life could occur.
SecurityInfoWatch.com caught up with Jon Lusher, the principal consultant and executive vice president of internal inspection and compliance for IPC International. IPC provides security services to shopping centers and malls in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, including security officers, technical services, as well as security training and consulting. Lusher shared his thoughts on the current state of mall security and how such incidents as the Westroads mall shootings affect retail security postures.
SIW: Can we prevent mall shootings like what happened in Omaha this week?
Lusher: I don't think it is possible to literally prevent such shootings as long as there are such disturbed individuals or terrorists committed to such attacks. Through a combination of skilled security personnel, law enforcement liaison and technology, some such incidents may be deterred and many more minimized.
A similar attack occurred in Salt Lake City in 2006. What can be learned from analyzing these incidents?
It is useful to know that the presence of law enforcement officers will continue to be an integral and important part of security at shopping centers. Further, these incidents validate the type of training now widespread in the industry, which deals with observing behaviors indicative of violent activity, as well as how to handle the incidents themselves to minimize injury, loss of life or property loss.
What is the current concern and thinking from mall and retail owners regarding this type of incident?
I know them to be very concerned, and yet confident that they are isolated incidents that cannot be absolutely defended against.
What about the possibility of metal detectors and X-rays?
We know that such techniques are technically possible, that the technologies exist. However, the industry feels, along with the vast majority of society, that we do not want to institute such draconian measures.
What should be the role of mall security officers in these situations, since they are almost always unarmed?
Their chief responsibility will always be to minimize harm to those in the mall. Thus, immediate inclusion of law enforcement and execution of plans in place to react to such occurrences are the first priority. Certainly, provision of first aid and crime scene maintenance would be included in these plans, as well as possible evacuations, reliance on emergency exits, etc.
Does technology like video surveillance even become a benefit here (for active prevention), considering such events are usually over within 5 minutes?
Video is unlikely to be a deterrent to this type of offender, but certainly may help security and law enforcement to manage and minimize harm. Secondarily, video may provide useful documentation and explanation of the incident.
Are store owners often trained in how to lock down their locations?
Most malls encourage this type of training, and assist stores in obtaining specific training. Further, security does work to coordinate the plans individual stores may have in place.
Does the fact that there is a security staff for the mall and individual security staffs for stores make it more of a challenge to create a unified security response and presence, especially since the staffs have historically been instructed to not rely on the other for communications and back-up?
It is perhaps more difficult if there is some hesitancy on the part of a store to coordinate [with mall security], but far from impossible. It takes some skill to coordinate the differences, but it is routinely accomplished.
In the area of mall and retail security, do you think we are getting better at sharing information among different private security staffs?
I do believe so. I would note that we have not found the information sharing from Federal authorities on terror-related issues to be much improved.
This incident occurred in the midst of a busy holiday shopping season (not unlike the Tacoma, Wash., mall shooting in 2005). Do you expect this incident to impact retail sales in shopping centers?
Generally, we see (anecdotally) that retail is not substantially decreased. We believe shoppers recognize these are isolated incidents that can and do occur in any venue, and are not deterred from living their lives, including shopping!
- The Hackett Security Team
6.15.2007
What will strengthen campus security?
Access control, mass notification, surveillance listed by poll participants
By Elisabeth Wilkins, associate editor of Security Systems News - 06.2007
In the weeks following the Virginia Tech shooting, Security Systems News polled our readers about what might improve campus security going forward, and what hinders security, if any such obstacle exists, on U.S. campuses today. Of 114 respondents to our survey, 81 percent said universities were not currently taking full advantage of the high tech security offerings on the market.
Further, when asked to choose a security technology that would most benefit a campus environment, 32 percent said surveillance systems, while 29 percent chose "Other" and gave answers that ranged from "training and arming faculty" to "personal protection" to "mass notification systems." Of the remainder, 16 percent chose smart card-based access control, 15 percent said video analytics, five percent listed contraband detectors, and four percent said biometrics-based access control could be best utilized to strengthen campus security.
Mark Craft Blacksburg, Virginia Tech Class of '91 and vice president at Professional Technologies, had this to say: "More than any previous generation, this generation of college students has grown up under electronic surveillance with an unprecedented expectation of safety. We, their parents, have employed baby monitors, nanny cams, web cams and security systems for their protection since birth. School time brought CCTV surveillance, access cards, and cell phones. Less afraid of 'big brother' than previous generations, they are accustomed to being supervised with technology. The question is: How far must this society go in order to feel safe? What will this new generation demand in the name of safety? In hindsight, simple measures could have at least reduced casualties in Norris Hall on April 16. But had they been in place, they may have merely caused the shooter to alter his plan--perhaps finding an easier target. I don't believe he tried to enter any of our access controlled computer labs on the 3rd floor."
Roscoe Coffman, operations manager at Open Options, said that he felt people needed to be better informed. "Most college and university administrators are woefully uninformed about the capabilities of current systems. For example, most would be astounded at the fact that critical video call-up, access control lockdown and campus wide audio annunciation could be accomplished with a single mouse click."
Access control was a theme that resonated amongst our readers, as well. "Running sophisticated access control and security systems is a daunting task at best," said Gene Samburg, president and chief executive officer of Kastle Systems, in Arlington, Va. "Campus security directors have limited budgets and limited resources. Many have not taken full advantage of outsourcing the operation and management of their systems to experts who can better perform the ongoing system management at a significantly higher level at a lower cost than they can themselves."
"I have long advocated entry-based weapons screening as the main and best deterrent to lethal violence in high schools; and the principles can be extended to campuses without compromising academic freedom," said J C Guignard, MD, FErgS Principal Scientist, Guignard Biodynamics, in Metairie, La.
Mass notification was also mentioned frequently by respondents, and has been a much-discussed security topic since the shooting.
Bob Shanes at Talk-A-Phone in Chicago remarked, "We are hearing more and more from campus safety professionals seeking for a more effective and efficient manner of quickly relaying information to thousands of people on their facilities. There seems to be a general feeling that multiple methods of communication including text messaging, emailing, and wide area broadcast is critical."
"Today, in the age of the Internet and IP communications, it could have been to the advantage of the university to have a system that can show, in real time, actual images of the scene as well as broadcast audio," said Bethany Moir, Director of Marketing at Visual Defence Inc. "The campus security center could manage the situation and have a proper assessment of what is going on from live coverage within the class rooms. This could be done with an inexpensive network of IP cameras that have audio transmission abilities as well, all broadcasting to a central location. A sophisticated video and audio management tool could display the images, perform automatic actions and lead the security personal through a series of predefined actions to resolve the situation. The fact that the flow of information was based on the cellular network, which is a one-to-one connection, prevented the quick resolution of the incident."
The future of college recruiting most certainly includes security ratings, according to many of our readers. "I believe that 'safety certifications' will also play a very important role in college and university recruiting, just like other certifications that demonstrate quality and value," said Rick Shaw at Awareity.
"Obviously, security is part of the mix now," agreed Robert Dannenfelser of axonX. "Physical security is something that can be easily promoted to parents and students. Video-analytic powered security takes the human factor out of the surveillance equation, leaving the response to the situation the only variable."
And Dawn Icard of The Systems Depot said, "Whatever safety measures a university has in place, or is considering putting into place, would play a major role in my decision if I were considering which university to attend."
Are any campuses leveraging their security solutions adequately? "There are several colleges and universities that are using the current security technology on their campus along with a guard or police force, showing a proactive approach to protecting students, faculty and staff," said Jim Geyer, general manager of SST, Midwest Region.
As with most around the country, the tragedy affected our readers on a personal level, as well. "As the father of a college sophomore and a middle schooler, I do and will check the school safety records of their present and intended colleges," said Kenneth R. Wheeler, the director of Security Services, at North Mississippi Medical Center.
"Those schools or colleges with good to outstanding safety records should publicize their safety efforts."
Perhaps Bill Mooney Tri-Cities branch manager of Protex Central in Nebraska, summarized it best from both a parental and security point of view: "As a parent of a school age daughter, I believe that parents today should be looking for a secure place for their kids to be educated, not only in higher education, but K-12 as well. While it is true that we cannot protect them all of their lives, it seems only appropriate that we should do our best to see that they are as safe as possible for as long as possible."
Click here for the original article.
- The Hackett Security Team
By Elisabeth Wilkins, associate editor of Security Systems News - 06.2007
In the weeks following the Virginia Tech shooting, Security Systems News polled our readers about what might improve campus security going forward, and what hinders security, if any such obstacle exists, on U.S. campuses today. Of 114 respondents to our survey, 81 percent said universities were not currently taking full advantage of the high tech security offerings on the market.
Further, when asked to choose a security technology that would most benefit a campus environment, 32 percent said surveillance systems, while 29 percent chose "Other" and gave answers that ranged from "training and arming faculty" to "personal protection" to "mass notification systems." Of the remainder, 16 percent chose smart card-based access control, 15 percent said video analytics, five percent listed contraband detectors, and four percent said biometrics-based access control could be best utilized to strengthen campus security.
Mark Craft Blacksburg, Virginia Tech Class of '91 and vice president at Professional Technologies, had this to say: "More than any previous generation, this generation of college students has grown up under electronic surveillance with an unprecedented expectation of safety. We, their parents, have employed baby monitors, nanny cams, web cams and security systems for their protection since birth. School time brought CCTV surveillance, access cards, and cell phones. Less afraid of 'big brother' than previous generations, they are accustomed to being supervised with technology. The question is: How far must this society go in order to feel safe? What will this new generation demand in the name of safety? In hindsight, simple measures could have at least reduced casualties in Norris Hall on April 16. But had they been in place, they may have merely caused the shooter to alter his plan--perhaps finding an easier target. I don't believe he tried to enter any of our access controlled computer labs on the 3rd floor."
Roscoe Coffman, operations manager at Open Options, said that he felt people needed to be better informed. "Most college and university administrators are woefully uninformed about the capabilities of current systems. For example, most would be astounded at the fact that critical video call-up, access control lockdown and campus wide audio annunciation could be accomplished with a single mouse click."
Access control was a theme that resonated amongst our readers, as well. "Running sophisticated access control and security systems is a daunting task at best," said Gene Samburg, president and chief executive officer of Kastle Systems, in Arlington, Va. "Campus security directors have limited budgets and limited resources. Many have not taken full advantage of outsourcing the operation and management of their systems to experts who can better perform the ongoing system management at a significantly higher level at a lower cost than they can themselves."
"I have long advocated entry-based weapons screening as the main and best deterrent to lethal violence in high schools; and the principles can be extended to campuses without compromising academic freedom," said J C Guignard, MD, FErgS Principal Scientist, Guignard Biodynamics, in Metairie, La.
Mass notification was also mentioned frequently by respondents, and has been a much-discussed security topic since the shooting.
Bob Shanes at Talk-A-Phone in Chicago remarked, "We are hearing more and more from campus safety professionals seeking for a more effective and efficient manner of quickly relaying information to thousands of people on their facilities. There seems to be a general feeling that multiple methods of communication including text messaging, emailing, and wide area broadcast is critical."
"Today, in the age of the Internet and IP communications, it could have been to the advantage of the university to have a system that can show, in real time, actual images of the scene as well as broadcast audio," said Bethany Moir, Director of Marketing at Visual Defence Inc. "The campus security center could manage the situation and have a proper assessment of what is going on from live coverage within the class rooms. This could be done with an inexpensive network of IP cameras that have audio transmission abilities as well, all broadcasting to a central location. A sophisticated video and audio management tool could display the images, perform automatic actions and lead the security personal through a series of predefined actions to resolve the situation. The fact that the flow of information was based on the cellular network, which is a one-to-one connection, prevented the quick resolution of the incident."
The future of college recruiting most certainly includes security ratings, according to many of our readers. "I believe that 'safety certifications' will also play a very important role in college and university recruiting, just like other certifications that demonstrate quality and value," said Rick Shaw at Awareity.
"Obviously, security is part of the mix now," agreed Robert Dannenfelser of axonX. "Physical security is something that can be easily promoted to parents and students. Video-analytic powered security takes the human factor out of the surveillance equation, leaving the response to the situation the only variable."
And Dawn Icard of The Systems Depot said, "Whatever safety measures a university has in place, or is considering putting into place, would play a major role in my decision if I were considering which university to attend."
Are any campuses leveraging their security solutions adequately? "There are several colleges and universities that are using the current security technology on their campus along with a guard or police force, showing a proactive approach to protecting students, faculty and staff," said Jim Geyer, general manager of SST, Midwest Region.
As with most around the country, the tragedy affected our readers on a personal level, as well. "As the father of a college sophomore and a middle schooler, I do and will check the school safety records of their present and intended colleges," said Kenneth R. Wheeler, the director of Security Services, at North Mississippi Medical Center.
"Those schools or colleges with good to outstanding safety records should publicize their safety efforts."
Perhaps Bill Mooney Tri-Cities branch manager of Protex Central in Nebraska, summarized it best from both a parental and security point of view: "As a parent of a school age daughter, I believe that parents today should be looking for a secure place for their kids to be educated, not only in higher education, but K-12 as well. While it is true that we cannot protect them all of their lives, it seems only appropriate that we should do our best to see that they are as safe as possible for as long as possible."
Click here for the original article.
- The Hackett Security Team
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