Monitoring Matters

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...

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,...

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...

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 live in a time when people are up in hypothetical (and sometimes real) arms about protecting their privacy. The hot topic and nearly constant debate of facial recognition … the fact that almost everyone has a smartphone with video and camera at their fingertips … video cameras placed across our cities … and while I appreciate these technologies, there is something coming that I’m not too sure about: Project Aria. Facebook recently unveiled this, labeling it a new...

If you’ve been reading any of my blogs as of late, you’ll know that cybersecurity has been my main focus and for good reason. With more and more of us working from home — approximately 4.7 million in the U.S. — cybercriminals are cleaning up, wreaking havoc on individual’s lives and businesses alike. In fact, IBM’s “Cost of a Data Breach Report” pegs the average cost of a security breach at $3.92 million. However, people across the world are fighting...

Jumping into the nitty-gritty of the six most popular cyberattacks used against U.S. companies, in which cyberattacks shot up 93 percent over the past 12 months, I engaged the help of cybersecurity expert, Rodney Thayer, convergence engineer at Smithee Solutions LLC. Let’s explore what each of the six attacks are and what you can do to help prevent them. But, first, a little about Thayer … “I was a software developer building communications protocols; therefore, I was doing...

When I hear the word “skyrocket,” it always reminds me of fireworks bursting overhead, spraying beautiful, illuminating dots and sparkles of color across a black nature canvas. However, when it comes to cyberattacks, there’s nothing beautiful at all about them; they’re detrimental. Take a moment to really think about these malicious assaults that gain unauthorized access to a victim’s device. Sensitive data can be stolen, computers completely taken over and harmful...

With all the negativity that the COVID-19 pandemic has bred, I find it encouraging and refreshing to see all the positive movement within the industry when it comes to the video surveillance camera market. As you probably heard, Motorola Solutions acquired Pelco, Inc. for $110 million in cash (not a bad chunk of change there!), and ADT and Google partnered to dominate the smart home market, so there’s almost an endless number of video camera applications here as more consumers are embracing the...

The loo, bathroom, restroom, el bano, latrine, water closet, washroom, powder room, lavatory, outhouse, toilet, commode, throne, potty … whatever your special name is for this place, we all know others shouldn’t be “privy” to our private moments here. But, as technology advances and new “smart” apparatuses tempt the must-have-it-all-type of consumer, privacy wanes and cybercriminals find new ways into the more personal parts of people’s lives. Case in point, the smart toilet … Scientists...