Page 32 - Security Today, September/October 2022

Reducing Overall Costs How AI reduces false alarms and overall costs
By Ajay Jain
y design, physical security systems warn security staff of intrusions or abnormal behavior. Unfor- tunately, they get it wrong most of the time. The vast majority of alarms are either false or “nui- sance” alarms caused by innocuous events trig-
done before.
Automated, AI-driven algorithms can analyze thousands of
alarms every minute and classify false alarms with tremendous accuracy. The solution uses historic data to create a model of be- havior for every device and real-time data to ensure components are properly performing in the present.
The software robots, dedicated to every door or a device, iden- tify the root cause of the alarms from doors or devices, and then applies advanced logic to fix the vulnerabilities and faulty con- figurations within the defined guardrails. AI-software does all the heavy lifting to remedy false alarms using its own internal data, allowing SOC teams to focus on real events of interest and other service offerings.
THE MANY COSTS OF FALSE ALARMS
There are various ways of measuring the costs of the false alarms. Depending on the size of the organization, a SOC can field thou- sands of alarms each day. On average, it takes 10 to 30 minutes for an operator to verify each alarm via video, then, many times, dispatch a security officer to investigate – only to discover that there is not a threat.
Costs may increase, as the Mean Time to Acknowledge (MTTA) and Mean Time to Response (MTTR) for alarms re- main high due to deluge of false and nuisance alarms.
gered unknowingly by humans, or by the wind, or by an animal crossing a protected area or even by equipment failure.
Chasing down false alarms at large facilities can easily over- whelm Security Operation Center (SOC) staff, distracting them from real events of interest, as well as from other important tasks and services they could otherwise be providing.
In an overwhelming majority of instances, enterprise organi- zations do not have enough security staff to review the volume of daily security alarms and requests they receive. This often results in a growing backlog of events to investigate, repeat alarms sim- ply being turned off and ignored, and staff burnout, all of which increase costs and decrease efficiency.
In the face of this chronic problem, SOCs can now turn to a powerful, AI-driven solution that detects the root cause of the false/nuisance alarms and further automates the process of false alarm reduction in a systematic way. Using AI and machine learning technology, security staff can rely on software that pro- actively analyzes and remediates the conditions that lead to false alarms throughout buildings and facilities. This has never been
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 | SECURITY TODAY
FALSE ALARM REDUCTION
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