Page 44 - Security Today, March 2018

The New Age
Advancing protection with IP technology integration BPy Joe Morgan
erimeter protection has been part of the human psyche since the dawn of mankind. Over the millennia we’ve evolved from crude barri-
ers of sticks and rocks to fortified walls of concrete and stone to electrified fences and high-resolution surveillance cameras. With each innovation we’ve become smarter and more effective at shielding our critical assets from threats — whether they’re a refinery pipeline, a power station transformer, trans- portation rails, a commercial data center, a hospital narcotics cabinet, a retailer’s high- end merchandise or even the loved ones in our homes.
We’re now entering a new phase of perim- eter security, the “Age of Integrated Perim- eter Security.” Forward-thinking companies are starting to explore how to combine com- plementing technologies to address the fluid nature of real-time threats. As more IP-based products become available and affordable — from long-range visual and thermal video cameras to access control systems, radar, ad- vanced analytics and VoIP — they present an opportunity for users to seamlessly integrate tools and potentially stop problems before a defensive stance is needed.
Think of your perimeter security strategy as a series of concentric goals, what the in- dustry calls “The Five Ds of Perimeter Secu- rity.” You first need to deter a threat. If the threat isn’t deterred, you want to make sure you detect it. If the threat progresses, you need to devise a way to deny it entry. Barring success at that stage, you need to delay the threat from doing harm until help arrives. And in the interim, you need a mechanism in place to defend your facility.
Let’s look at the portfolio of IP tools cur- rently on the market and those on the hori- zon and see how you could effectively apply them to the five Ds.
DETER: turn aside, discourage or pre- vent from acting
DETECT: discover the presence of
When it comes to deterring and detect- ing threats, the earlier the warning the bet- ter. This means facilities need to look out- side the perimeter fence and consider how to secure the buffer zone leading up to that fence line. Ample lighting and well-placed video surveillance cameras tend to project the message that anyone approaching is being observed, which tends to deter indi- viduals looking for easy pickings. But if the threat isn’t deterred, there are a number of
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PERIMETER SECURITY
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