Page 47 - Security Today, September/October 2024

Leveraging Smart Sensor Security Operations: Deciding between incident and response
By James Stark
Asecurity operations center (SOC) has always been dynamic and fast-paced. Quick response times are critical for achieving safe- ty and loss prevention goals. With that mission, SOCs are leveraging innovative technologies today, which bring security professionals closer to incidents, allow for faster response, and shift the approach from reactive to proactive.
In the SOC, tools such as video ana- lytics and intelligent audio, along with live monitoring and audio voice-down (AVD), are a few of the many technologies help- ing to bridge the gap between incidents and responses. Modern technologies en- able SOCs to effectively engage staff and processes, allowing them to respond and deescalate situations faster than before. In many cases, they can prevent security incidents from occurring in the first place.
Adopting these technologies has many additional benefits: they can be scaled to fit virtually any size SOC and they can be implemented either in-house or out- sourced to a third-party to operate for the SOC. With the help of an organization’s security integrators and vendors, a cus-
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tomized solution — allowing security op- erations to be closer to the action — can be achieved.
TODAY’S SECURITY TOOLS
CLOSE THE GAP
Foremost, if a SOC is not using AI-based video analytics, then security operators may be manually monitoring dozens to hundreds of camera feeds. With such a flood of visual input, it’s impractical — if not impossible — for operators to turn to- wards the right view at the right time. Tra- ditional video motion detection generates too many false alarms to be effective.
The preeminent technology available to- day to help close the gap between incident and response is AI-based analytics. Analyt- ics classify objects such as people and vehi- cles, so a SOC can build rules around those classifications, which generate precise alerts based on an organization’s needs. For ex- ample, a facility may create a rule that trig- gers an alert if someone enters an equip- ment yard between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Or an alert if any vehicles other than green box trucks enter a lot. Or an alert if maximum occupancy is exceeded. The possibilities are exciting because they can be customized for
the organization.
AI-based analytics put the emphasis
on deterrence. Video analytics ensure that operators see an incident now, not as it happened yesterday. This gives a SOC the opportunity to intervene, whether it is to help guide an employee or to deter some- one with bad intentions on the property, while perhaps notifying authorities simul- taneously.
The fact that situations are being watched in live mode instead of after- the-fact adds a level of credibility to the organization requesting law enforcement response. SOC operators watching camera feeds can verify an alarm to be actual ver- sus false — an advantage in jurisdictions that mandate video verification of alarm calls. They can stay on a call with police dispatchers, describing situations as they unfold and then remotely unlocking gates when police arrive at the premises.
Video analytics can be delivered through the camera (called edge analyt- ics), from an on-prem server, or from a cloud provider — or via a hybrid solution that uses more than one of these meth- ods. Edge analytics have the advantage of not requiring servers and not requiring a connection out to the cloud. All the intel- ligence at the camera is sent directly back to the SOC. Importantly, vendors should provide the ability to have all three con- nections — camera, on-premises server and cloud.
Video analytics integrated with intel- ligent audio detection is another trans- formative solution for a SOC. Operators might observe aggressive actions and si- multaneously receive aggressive-sound notifications from the intelligent audio system. These concurrent alerts help the SOC make a rapid decision to deploy re- sources to the area.
While not as transformative as analyt- ics and intelligent audio, other technolo- gies can solve unique security challenges. For example, radar is a powerful perim- eter protection system, which can detect the motion of an intruder several hundred feet out in all weather conditions. Security
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