In a unified recognition that the energy sector has become the top target for hackers, together, Telekom, Hitachi Energy and Securitas have formed an Alliance against blackouts, in an effort to protect energy suppliers against attacks.
Telekom Security CEO Thomas Fetten: “Critical infrastructures are being attacked more and more frequently. The latest example in Portugal unfortunately shows how cyber attacks can affect networked technology. Electricity is particularly important. A successful, precise attack on this area of critical infrastructure would cripple life as we know it. The economy, too. That’s why we’re pooling our expertise in fighting physical attacks, just as we do against attacks from virtual space.”
Pierre-Alain Graf, Head of Global Security Business Hitachi Energy: “We have a saying: the future is uncertain but electric. We are addressing climate change with renewable energy from the sun, water and wind. And are generating electricity in an increasingly decentralised way. This inevitably makes us more vulnerable to attack. The partnership therefore extends the umbrella of protection to production technology.”
Anders Gustavsson, Head of Remote Video Solutions Securitas Services Europe: “Building a Fort Knox around solar farms and substations is not enough. Attackers shy away from robustly secured facilities. They move into cyber space. Together, no one can fend off attacks on company networks, operating technology and sites alone. That’s why we’re pooling our expertise.”
Hackers cut off power to more than 700,000 households
Attacks on the energy sector target society as a whole. Attackers include state-backed hacker groups. The German domestic intelligence services cite the intelligence services of Russia, China and Iran as the source of cyberattacks against German plants. In 2015 and 2016, hackers had sabotaged power supplies in Ukraine, highlighting the impact of such attacks for the first time. More than 700,000 households were without power for hours.
The energy industry represents the most critical of infrastructure. Targeted attacks on pipelines, power plants or substations are on the rise. Examples include Colonial Pipeline in the USA and the Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas. In Brazil, hackers targeted the nuclear branch of Eletrobras.
Energy sector in top three attack targets worldwide
The sector is one of the top-three targets for cyber criminals worldwide. That’s because the industry is now highly digital. Beyond corporate IT, smart operating computers with sensors control electricity. Digitally networked, they are also targets for attackers. Physical security is needed for plants in the energy sector. This is especially true for remote distribution stations, pumping stations and high-voltage pylons. If a hacker gets his hands on a control cabinet, he attacks from the inside. Even the best network firewall cannot protect against this. Here, for example, networked video cameras keep watch over the site.
Overarching protective shield
Securing critical infrastructures requires an overarching understanding of OT, IT and physical security. A team of experts from Telekom Security, Hitachi Energy and Securitas has developed an overarching approach in recent years. This combines physical protection with enterprise network and digital operational technology security. It enables critical infrastructures to meet protection and regulatory challenges.
Slavoljub Stevanović, MOBOTIX Business Development Manager at Konica Minolta Business Solutions, presented the new MOBOTIX 7 platform cameras, modules and applications built into the cameras on this platform.
In addition, the presenter showed the openness of the MOBOTIX 7 platform delivering ultimate individuality and changing video surveillance with an infinite number of possibilities. The platform already includes specialized apps that cover several industry-specific, individual requirements.
Certified Apps are professional, deep learning-based MOBOTIX camera apps from renowned partners explicitly verified and certified by MOBOTIX. Thanks to the high modularity, users can use the apps they exactly need in their video system to meet their requirements.
The presentation was wrapped by use cases demonstrating how the solution saves time and money.
SALTO Systems has introduced EAN13 standardized barcodes into its product packaging answering to partners and channel needs. The EAN code is a 13-digit bar code used internationally to identify each product. The International Article Number (also known as European Article Number or EAN) is a standard describing a barcode symbology and numbering system used in global trade to identify a specific SALTO product model, in a specific packaging configuration, with a unique identification number.
The use of EAN codes across SALTO products will allow partners and installers in the identification and distribution of SALTO products and reduce the margin of error within their own channels. One of the major benefits of standardization through product codes is having better warehousing processes and product tracking. The EAN code will allow SALTO and its partners to obtain valuable information about SALTO products, and optimize stock management, product information, operations, or even improve competitiveness.
The introduction of EAN13 codes will facilitate the selling and distribution of SALTO products across the channel. EAN codes help in distinguishing one SALTO product model from others easily and fast. These numbers are unique and describe the attributes of the products via identification marks. They can represent details like:
The type of lock, cylinder, or reader model
Technology compatibility
Price, weight, or colour
Manufacturer
Country code
Other product-related data
The EAN13 code standardized barcodes will be adopted gradually into the complete product range from SALTO.
Suprema, a global leader in access control, biometrics and solutions for time and attendance management, has certified its products and solutions by acquiring international safety certificates to ensure the highest level of security and protection.
Suprema’s four-door access control panel Corestation is its first controller to acquire UL 294 compliance, a certification that evaluates the safety and reliability of the product. Suprema’s compact outdoor RFID reader, Xpass D2 is SIA OSDP verified, meaning that the device conforms to the SIA Open Supervised Device Protocol (OSDP) standard and the related performance profiles. It ensures higher security than a common access control communication protocol by constant monitoring of wires and protecting with high-end AES-128 encryption.
Furthermore, Suprema continuously works hard to update and enhance data protection features to meet security standards. Suprema’s access control and time & attendance platform Biostar2 has acquired ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications, which certify compliance with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR). Overall, these certifications ensure that Suprema access control systems have the highest level of protection against potential security breaches and vulnerabilities.
“Suprema not only provides the world’s leading biometrics security solutions but also takes the lead in the protection and safe use of biometric data, including facial and fingerprint information”, said Suprema Inc. CEO Hanchul Kim. “Suprema will continuously expand our investment in data protection by acquiring certifications to comply with the different regulations on a regional basis. Suprema will provide the most secure biometrics security solutions to the world so that people can enjoy the convenience and safety that biometric technology provides.”
The Extinguishing Section of Euralarm has published a guidance document on Integrated fire protection solutions for lithium-ion batteries.
This new Euralarm guideline provides information on the issues related to the use of lithium-ion batteries, how fires start in batteries and on how they may be detected, controlled, suppressed and extinguished. It also provides guidance on post fire management. Excluded from the scope are explosion and ventilation issues.
Lithium-ion batteries have become the battery technology of choice in a variety of areas, including amongst others, power generation, communications, industrial, vehicles and many other applications. Active control of the energy being stored and extracted from lithium-ion batteries has been the foundation of their increasing popularity. The relatively low frequency of major incidents is testament to the effort and successful design applied to the critical aspect of using such high-density energy products. However, active control of the battery energy is not sufficient to prevent safety-critical situations and multiple levels of defence are needed to minimize the serious consequences of a failure in a lithium-ion battery.
The increasing number of lithium-ion batteries and an increasing amount of stored energy in different energy storage applications present a new type of fire hazard where fire protection is challenging. Key issues in any fire protection system are the selection of the most appropriate agent for the specific hazard, system layout, the correct discharge of the extinguishing agent, as well as correct installation, the use of approved systems and constant maintenance by appropriately trained staff.
The guidance document ‘Integrated fire protection solutions for lithium-ion batteries’ is intended as guidance for all professionals dealing with fire safety, fire protection, extinguishing and fire suppression in connection with the use, storage or transport of lithium-ion batteries and their fire risks. Aspects of consumers products are not covered in the guidance.
Euralarm states that the document is intended as general guidance and is not a substitute for detailed advice in specific circumstances. It represents the current understanding of the industry and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Motorola Solutions has acquired London-based Ava Security Ltd, a global provider of cloud-native video security and analytics.
This acquisition means that the Group strengthens its global dominance in the video surveillance industry and especially in the area of video analysis. The video security companies Avigilon, Pelco, Indigovision and Openpath (which deliver mobile access control solutions) are already part of the group.
The terms of the transaction were not revealed in the press release from Motorola Solutions, but according to the American online publication IPVM, it is said among many professionals in the security industry that it is about 400 million dollars.
Impressive growth
Earlier this month Ava’s latest financials revealed another year of triple digit growth for 2021. Overall the figures show that video revenue grew globally by over 300%, ARR grew by 500% and the number of cameras connected to the Ava Aware Cloud continues to double every three months. The company continued to make significant investments across R&D, sales, marketing and leadership throughout the year.
Innovative development
On the innovation front, during the year, Ava introduced two new cloud cameras (the Ava Compact Dome and the Ava Bullet), launched Ava Cloud Storage, delivered a unified dashboard for hybrid deployments and developed native integrations with IP Video’s Halo sensors and Disruptive Technologies’ environmental sensors. Ava also launched software-driven LPR (License Plate Recognition), enabling the technology on both Ava and third party cameras and not requiring separate dedicated LPR hardware.
“2021 was a great year for us, with our growth rate boosted by new enterprise customers – five Fortune 1000 customers in Q4 alone. But we’re not stopping there, as we’re projecting similar growth numbers for 2022,” comments Tormod Ree, CEO & Co-Founder of Ava Security.
Intelligent video surveillance
Ava Security’s scalable, secure and flexible cloud solution provides enterprises with real-time visibility and powerful analytics to optimise their operations and detect anomalies and threats.
“Our acquisition of Ava highlights our continued commitment to advancing cloud-based video security technologies,” states Greg Brown, chairman and CEO, Motorola Solutions.
“With Ava, we’re well-positioned to support our customers’ evolving security needs by expanding our portfolio of intelligent video solutions that help to enhance safety and streamline operations.”
In addition to allowing organisations to easily access, search and manage their entire system from a centralised dashboard, its self-learning algorithms also enhance enterprise security by detecting abnormal behaviour and alerting operators to events in real-time.
Merger created a hybrid
Ava Security was formed through a merger between Jazz Networks, a cyber security insider threat detection and response company, and Vaion, an end-to-end video security provider. Together, they would meet the market’s needs against both physical threats and cyber security threats by making companies and other organisations to monitor, understand and act on threats in real time to protect people, assets and data. Both companies were privately owned by Ubon Partners and employees.
Over the past few years, organizations across the globe have moved from piloting to operationalizing enterprise-wide computer vision solutions at scale. Breakthrough technologies that were destined to take 5 to 10 years to appear in the market are being implemented today, and this trend of adapting to the latest advanced technologies shows no sign of stopping.
Years ago, computer vision was just a clever science fiction innovation, but now it’s a reality that is quickly becoming a part of the enterprise landscape.
In essence, computer vision uses AI and machine learning to make sense of digital video, images, audio and even biometric data, and provides insights and conclusions. With data gathered from both cameras and edge based IoT sensors dotted around a building, campus or an entire city, for example, computer vision technology applies algorithmic models to learn about visual data and turn it into information for decision making.
According to Forrester, 80% of organizations expect the number of AI use cases to increase in the next two years.[1] These data-driven organizations are implementing computer vision to improve the customer experience, gain operational efficiencies and ultimately drive new revenue streams. Indeed, IDC says that organizations that are considered data analytics innovators are two times more profitable than their peers.[2]
It all makes sense. Reliable, accessible data helps business and operational leaders make better decisions, strengthens security, gives companies a competitive edge and can transform how organizations deliver products and services.
The missing link: a real-time federated approach
Video intelligence is not new. Most companies, public spaces and even today’s schools are outfitted with video camera systems. What’s standing in the way of translating video into real-time actionable insights, however, is managing the volume, velocity and variety of data, as well as connecting the dots on that data.
While common approaches to data curation and analytics send data to a central platform for processing, doing so can create tremendous amounts of traffic across a network. There’s also latency involved with large data flows traveling back and forth, which is a significant issue if time-sensitive decisions must be made based on the data.
In order to overcome these challenges, some organizations are implementing real-time federated learning models (Figure 1) which allow for the data to be more efficiently processed and stored, for the most part, at the network edge. The idea is to build algorithmic models on a central server, which is often in the cloud, and keep data at the edge where it’s used. Send a model to the edge, train it with the local data, and then send back only the results to the central server for aggregation. In turn, the central model can be improved and sent back to the edge for enhanced local inferencing.
Figure 1. A Federated Learning Model: The flow of information in a federated model keeps data in place from each edge device while enabling secure data sharing of metadata, results and models across users, devices, data centers, and the cloud.
Today’s visual data models are also designed with typical end users – at the edge – in mind. Having data scientists on hand to perform analyses has largely been replaced with standardized models and drag-and-drop workflows for a “create your own” analytics package. An analytics model marketplace has emerged where companies that are investing in computer vision technology but don’t have in-house AI or data science expertise can incorporate models into their operations.
There are significant advantages to the real-time federated approach:
You ingest visual data once and can allow multiple applications access to the information.
The model that remains on the central server is not tied to specific data; models can be shared with others without security risks.
Because training takes place at the edge, network costs are lower and there’s no need to maintain a centralized data lake.
The data marketplace democratizes computer vision for the masses, enabling the sharing and monetization of pre-trained models aligned with specific use cases.
Computer vision’s impact today
Computer vision touches our everyday lives. You probably use computer vision without realizing it. Does your smartphone have facial recognition that lets you unlock the device or authenticate to online banking sites? That’s computer vision. Consider modern cars with embedded cameras. Visual data used from the cameras as well as other sensors gives modern cars the ability to parallel park themselves. Adaptive cruise control regulates a car’s speed while leaving a safe gap between itself and other vehicles, and the accident avoidance system applies the brakes when a car is too close to an object in front of it.
From a business perspective, you can find applications of computer vision across nearly every vertical – retail, transportation, healthcare, manufacturing and energy, to name a few. And you can apply computer vision across those verticals to achieve substantial outcomes, such as personal and facility safety, improved customer experience, operational efficiencies, sustainability and revenue generation. With good visual data and constantly improved models, airports can be run more efficiently, stadium customer service can be customized for each spectator and the healthcare industry can detect tumors more accurately and quickly.
Where is computer vision heading?
To answer this question, let’s look at Figure 2, which depicts the maturity curve of analytics. Over the past few years, many organizations have moved from using Computer Vision as a means to retrieve just descriptive and diagnostic results to being able to be more predictive in their approach, where the models help to predict likely outcomes.
Figure 2. Analytics Maturity Curve
Data-driven organizations are now deploying prescriptive solutions that are driving tangible benefits, outcomes and near real-time actionable insights. As these solutions become more adaptive, they will bring dramatic improvements to the performance of systems and automated processes, as well as decision making. And that’s when a real-time continuous improvement loop will be possible, where a model is constantly retraining itself. The later stages of the analytics maturity curve will see processes occur with little or no human interaction or decision making, with resources reaching their destination proactively.
The computer-vision-enabled car will automatically integrate with smart city traffic control systems to avoid and help alleviate traffic congestion, and it will connect with parking information to be guided to the most efficient spot based on its destination. With real-time computing at the edge and an updated model being pushed to the car, your car will “know” how to drive safely whether it’s in a senior community neighborhood or on a high-speed freeway.
Moving forward with a computer vision strategy
Adopting a computer vision solution requires proper testing and validation. Anyone can run compatibility tests and validate an application on a platform in a silo. The trick is to validate multiple applications that are working together on a platform at scale, which support the “ingest once, work on many” concept, and that span the full solution architecture from edge to core to cloud.
A computer vision model design should be validated to ensure the models work properly with specific real-world computer vision applications. Validated design solutions are tested and optimized for each use case. They’re also right-sized to the environment in which they will run, which takes the guesswork out of how much storage, compute and other specs you’ll need for proper purchasing. Opting to conduct real-world testing in-house can put a strain on resources but there are third-party options available. Dell Technologies, for example, offers lab-validated solutions from a curated pool of more than a hundred technology, AI and service partners.
Where validation addresses the technical elements, computer vision is also about the business. Each organization looking to adopt computer vision technology or bring their current implementation to the next level should focus on the insights they want to gain in order to run their business and improve processes. With computing done at the edge, previous boundaries and limitations are lifted. We can now deliver better quality insights, faster and at scale, so organizations should first focus on the outcomes they want to achieve in the areas of safety, customer experience, operational efficiencies, sustainability and generating additional revenue
Computer vision technology provides deeper insights than you can get just from data. Now you can complement that data with visual information, making the data much richer and more useful, and maintain a competitive edge in this new era of how organizations operate and serve customers.
Stay tuned: This is the first article of a series depicting how computer vision is impacting key industries. Be on the lookout for future articles from Dell Technologies on this topic.
[1] Forrester report: “Overcome Obstacles To Get To AI At Scale,” January, 2020. https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/VBMPEQLN.
[2] Computer Vision 030421 pdf. IDC report: “The Data-Forward Enterprise: How to Maximize Data Leverage for Better Business Outcomes,” May, 2020. DOC #US46264420.
Michael Byrden, Business Development Strategic Partnerships Manager at Vanderbilt & Comnet, delivered a presentation on three different solutions for the transportation and logistics sectors.
Cloud security solutions successfully manage multiple sites coordinated from one center. In addition, the presenter emphasized OSDP protocol as a solution against card cloning at airports and how to protect against it. The third solution is about pre-booking and optimizing car parking using ANPR technology.
Teledyne Technologies Incorporated has acquired a majority interest in Noiseless Acoustics Oy. Located in Helsinki, Finland, NL Acoustics designs and manufactures Si124 acoustics imaging instruments and predictive maintenance solutions, including the new cord-free Flir Si-Series cameras.
NL Acoustics’ camera products combined with advanced analytics provide easy-to-use advanced imaging and monitoring solutions. They allow users to detect critical problems and make intelligent maintenance decisions in multiple applications, such as electric power distribution, compressed air systems, and factory condition monitoring.
Kai Saksela and Jonas Nyberg, who founded NL Acoustics in 2015, will retain a minority stake in the business and continue in their current executive leadership roles with the company.
“Having worked with NL Acoustics since 2019, we are delighted to strengthen our partnership with the company,” said Rickard Lindvall, General Manager of Teledyne Flir Solutions. “Collectively, Teledyne and NL Acoustics provide a wide range of condition monitoring and safety solutions, including acoustic imaging systems, optical gas leak detection cameras, and hazardous gas and flame detection instrumentation.”
Rob Dupre, Product Manager at VCA Technology presented the company and its technologies, use cases and where these solutions are applied. In addition to the presentation of current technologies and applications, speaker also introduced the new releases and the road map for 2022. In its core, VCA Technology is a UK based software development company designing and developing the applications designed for security to traffic and business intelligence applications.
