Building a Robust Security Infrastructure

In an interview with Jason Miller, Head of Physical Security at Paper Excellence elaborates on the security challenges in the business sector and the latest technological and process elements adopted by Paper Excellence to make a successful project.

What Are Some Of The Major Challenges And Trends Impacting The Business Sector Lately?

The Physical Security sector is amid some exciting developments. JPhysical security is actively utilizing more sophisticated techniques to safeguard people and other assets, just as the rest of the world is embracing more AI and technology-based solutions. This “security convergence” is the approach of integrating cybersecurity and information technology strategies with physical security measures to increase awareness and strengthen the protection of facilities, people, and data. Gone are the days of security only relating to gates, guards, and guns. Many more sophisticated ways to protect our assets now exist, from video analytics to tell us when a real threat exists (as opposed to simple motion detection) to robots and drones to perform guarding and response duties, to artificial intelligence to alarm us of who might be a danger within our ranks to many other advancements.

The challenge continues to be developing a more robust security culture that embraces the “see something, say something” concept. We are improving, but the security culture is still far behind the safety culture. People are far too concerned about offending people by not holding a door open, for example, so we need to continue educating everyone on why we ask them to reduce tailgating. However, we can also pair that with a technology solution, such as turnstiles or facial recognition. We always want to strive toward setting people up for success.

What Keeps You Up At Night When It Comes To Some Of The Major Predicaments In The Business Sector?

Of course, the buzzword of the day is “active shooter”. We have expanded it in most security circles to “active aggressor” since a firearm isn’t necessarily the mechanism for the attempted killer. Even though it is gravely important and impactful, it is so infrequent that I’m not losing sleep on it (most nights, anyway). I believe the greatest threat to my company and most others is the “Insider.” An Insider is any current or former employee or contractor or anyone else who may have more insight into a company’s inner workings or vulnerabilities. Active employees and contractors are particularly difficult to track since they raise no suspicion by being on-site.

Yet, if they have devious intent, they’re able to access just about anything, and, what is worse, they’re much more likely to know where and how to hit us the hardest. This is where I point back to the necessity of a good “see something, say something” program to identify concerns before plans are carried out.

Can You Tell Us About The Latest Project You Have Been Working On And What Are The Technological And Process Elements You Leveraged To Make The Project Successful?

We recently acquired two companies, each over double the size of our original organization. Like our company, though, the new companies had inconsistent security programs at every location. Some sites had pretty good access control measures, cameras, fences, gates, etc., while others were less so, and no two places were all that similar, procedurally or regarding equipment. I felt it would be essential to standardize some minimum security measures for each type of facility, so we put together a document. We will soon roll it out to various stakeholders for additional review and input before submitting it to the executive board for approval.

 The review process includes not just security but also safety, HR, IT, Legal, and several other groups to ensure all necessary divisions get a say. Once approved, each site will be required to at least get themselves up to the standard, and laggards will be mocked and publicly ridiculed until they obey. I’m kidding, of course. Like the employee populace, they likely need to understand the reasons for the mandates better so they can start supporting and abiding by them.

What Are Some Of The Technological Trends Which Excite You For The Future Of The Business Sector?

There are so many that it is hard to keep track of them all. The most fascinating development, in my opinion, is video analytics, though there are robots and drones, facial recognition, and artificial intelligence. People monitoring cameras could (at best) monitor three or four cameras well, and even with just those, fatigue set in quickly. As I said, we want to set people up for success, and video analytics allows for that. In the early days, motion sensing made monitoring slightly easier, but windy days or a moth flying nearby were just two of the many instances that led to false alarms.

 Now, cameras can distinguish between humans and animals, detect whether someone is donning the proper safety gear or picking up a package with their legs or back (reducing the likelihood of injury), and even determine if someone is pulling out a firearm. These are just a handful of the most recent developments in video analytics; new ones are being developed every month. It’s an exciting time to be in security, and we’re coming together increasingly with our partners in IT and cyber and all forms of technology to keep everyone safe and secure.