Author: Niranjan Maka
The recent Louvre Heist is in the headlines. If you are in any kind of protection / security, or any security role to protect the “crown jewels” in your security scope – life, property or critical assets, these headlines should not come as a surprise.
𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲’𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱.
Security has evolved from decades old “labor intensive” patrols to relying on surveillance equipment providing the role of “surveil’ng eyes”; and yes, those eyes are being replaced by “AI eyes” – systems that are watching video feeds, raising alarms when incidents are detected.
But most smart converged security folks realize that in today’s “smart everything” world (aka smart-spaces/cities/manufacturing/retail floors), systems from cameras, recorders, badge reading equipment have gotten very complex – each has evolved into a mini-computer in itself.
Example, a camera on the wall is a computer with eyes!!!
𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒖𝒈𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔, 𝒂𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍.
These systems need an underlying infrastructure to monitor and manage. Monitor settings – an average camera may have a thousand settings – and in the Louvre case, 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐟𝐟 – 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥.
If you had a “smart AI VMS system”, one should also be watching the underlying services (typically running a Windows or Linus OS derivative); one should be watching the storage capacity. And yes, have some basic cyber-hygiene procedures in place, like rotating the access control settings, update/rotate certificates and passwords – all basic hygiene!!!
𝑁𝑜𝑤, 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑦’𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑛 𝑑𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 – 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑟 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑟-𝑤𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙. 𝐴𝑛𝑑, 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑡𝑖𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑑𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎 – 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜-𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑢𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑟.
In other words, you would need a platform that was developed in recent times (not decades old camera feed monitoring, dinosaur age systems) with ability to read, digest and write back policy-aligned settings and keep the firmware/OS updated.
𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐚 𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞? 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞 “𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐣𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐬”!
