Page 94 - Security Today, March 2017

PROBLEM
Disruptive false fire alarms
SOLUTION
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2017
How OSDP Will Help
Security Professionals
The Open Supervised Device Proto- col (OSDP) is a communication standard adopted by the Security Industry Associ- ation (SIA) that lets security equipment, such as card and biometric readers from one company interface easily with con- trol panels and equipment from another manufacturer. In other words, OSDP fosters interoperability among security devices. It also adds sophistication and security benefits through features such as bi-directional communication and read/write capabilities.
A two-way channel paves the way for forward-looking security applica- tions such as the handling of advanced smartcard technology, PKI and mobile device access. Not only does it provide a concise set of commonly used com- mands and responses, it eliminates guesswork, since encryption and au- thentication is predefined.
OSDP ensures that numerous manu- facturers’ products will work with each other. Interoperability can be achieved regardless of system architecture. The specification can handle smartcards by constantly monitoring wiring to protect against attack threats and serves as a solution for high-end encryption such as required in federal applications. The specification for handling feedback mechanisms provides a rich, user-cen- tric access control environment.
Significantly, the SIA Access Control & Identity Subcommittee is in the process of making OSDP v 2.1.6 an American Na- tional Standards Institute (ANSI) standard. Many manufacturers have already imple- mented OSDP and there are many other companies with OSDP devices in devel- opment. To encourage this, the SIA has released tools that will ensure that these numbers continue to grow.
The SIA Open OSDP Test Tool is open-source software that lets manu- facturers of OSDP compatible equip- ment test their products against the specification.
Because it is backed by the SIA, we can be confident OSDP is going to be- come very visible. It is recommended that those dealing with smart security in any format will want to start incorporat- ing the use of the OSDP standard in their equipment and systems.
0317 | SECURITY TODAY