Blogs

The concept of access control has been placed under the proverbial microscope after witnessing hundreds of people storm the U.S. Capitol building earlier this month during one of the most infamous and unforgettable days in American history. Watching video footage of outnumbered and overwhelmed Capitol police officers as political rioters vandalized offices, meeting chambers and the building’s historic Rotunda served as a reminder of the importance of fortified access control in higher-security...

The remote workforce phenomenon, brought on by COVID-19 and stay-at-home directives in many of the hardest hit states, has changed, possibly forever, how companies and organizations do business. According to Gartner Research’s recent report on Remote Work, more than 48 percent of employees will continue to work remotely post COVID-19. While there are clearly some positives for moving to a remote, or hybrid workforce model, there are also some pitfalls, or challenges, to such an...

As we embark on a new year, we have a tendency to take a look at trends to follow over the next few months. In the security industry, a number of video surveillance trends to look for in 2021 were recently released in a report by Eagle Eye Networks. The rise of cloud One of the trends that the report outlined is that there is more of a customer demand for cloud video security. The report states, “The shift to the benefits of cloud in the video surveillance space is powerful and undeniable,...

Sorry about the classic movie reference – cue that epic western movie theme music now please – but this year will be remembered as one of the most challenging in American history, and the security industry has not been immune, with the impact of this past year being felt in all facets of the industry, certainly some more than others. The 2020 M&A market, in particular, has had some wild activity. Just in the last six months alone we have seen some big deals, most notably: Allied...

As we look ahead to 2021, security companies continue to take care of customers dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, while also battling a cyber pandemic that saw a record surge in data leaks in 2020. According to a report recently released by Atlas VPN, analysis based on Risk Based Security data reveals that exposed data hit a record 36.1 billion in the first three quarters of 2020. This record number of data leaks is more than two times higher than all of 2019 and makes up more than...

I know, many of you clicked on the title thinking, “celebrate? Does this guy realize we are in part two of a pandemic?!” But, seriously, the entire world as we know it can’t wait to countdown to 2021, and distance ourselves as much as possible from a year that was fraught with uncertainty and challenges, pushing many of us to dig down to places we didn’t even know existed for strength and resilience, and to recalibrate ourselves to this – I promise I’m not going...

The year 2020 will go down as one of the most challenging years that the world has ever faced. With the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting people’s daily lives around the globe, we have learned to embrace a term that has come to encapsulate these changes to our day-to-day routines – the new norm. What exactly makes up the new norm in our everyday lives? Working from home is a prime example of what is now normal to millions of working people in the United States and around the world. Instead...

We here at Security System News are excited to announce the education program for our virtual SecurityNext conference — held over two afternoons on Feb. 24-25, 2021. This year’s virtual conference follows what was a highly successful inaugural SecurityNext in-person conference earlier this year in New Orleans, right before the pandemic changed in-person conferences for 2020 and the foreseeable future. I am sure we are all looking forward to getting back to some semblance of normalcy as...

Recent Q3 earnings announcements from smart home security giants ADT and Alarm.com helped to clear up the smart home picture a bit, as both companies addressed the current and future state of their partnership in light of ADT’s recent megadeal with Google earlier this year. Both company CEOs talked at length about their future plans as it relates to all parties involved, creating an interesting landscape as the race to control the smart home tightens while getting a little less murky at...

We continue to do research on, talk with industry leaders about and write on “the business impact of COVID-19” here at Security Systems News, and, well … actually … have had the topic loom as the backdrop for most, if not every, conversation we have these days. And for good reason! While there are obvious and real challenges we all face during these times, the continuing flow of new research, like the latest white paper from Axis Communications, shows that change and...