From the editor's desk: Open season on IP surveillance
April 2017, News
Who would have guessed that IP surveillance equipment would become such a player in the cybersecurity world? Never mind the Mirai botnet that made use of some sloppy coding from a Chinese manufacturer last year, many of the leading camera brands have had the displeasure of having security vulnerabilities in their kit exposed to the public.
A couple of weeks before writing this, an IPVM newsletter contained news of vulnerabilities in IP cameras from Geutebrück, Hikvision, Dahua and Siemens (which was bought by Vanderbilt in 2015). And at the same time, there was some kind of bot targeting older Hikvision equipment using the default password and locking users out of their systems (later kit forces installers to change the admin password on installation). And the latest news is there are more vulnerabilities from more manufacturers. You’d think we worked in IT.
And there are other companies that have been called out for vulnerabilities before this particular week. Then there’s the war of words between Genetec and Hikvision in which Genetec will only allow users to hook up to Hikvision cameras if they sign a waiver absolving the VMS software developer of any problems resulting from a possible back door in Hikvision’s systems. Hikvision obviously denied any back doors exist and it’s safe to say the companies are not best of pals right now – see inside for Hikvision’s response.
One may wonder why this is all happening now? It’s all to do with the Internet of Things (IoT) in which everything is connected. That sounds good, but really it’s simply the result of moving to IP surveillance. Cyber criminals, who are just criminals with a cool name, always opt for the easiest target and as the IT world makes it harder to gain access to corporate networks, so the bad guys have looked for an easier mark, which is IP equipment (as well as a host of other IoT devices which are even less secure).
It was only the paranoid who thought about hacking a network via an IP camera five years ago, but how right they were.
In this issue of the CCTV Handbook, we take a look at what is happening in the surveillance world with a particular focus on the new annoyances the industry has to deal with: cyber security and the IoT. Even if you don’t care, even if you ignore them, you can’t escape their influence.
So, no matter what camera brand you have installed, do yourself a favour and search their websites for new versions of firmware. It’s a schlep, but nowhere near as much of a schlep as explaining why your corporate network and data were so easy to compromise through your surveillance installation.
There has been so much to include in the CCTV Handbook 2017 that we couldn’t fit it all in the pages that follow. There will, therefore, be additional articles online along with the articles in the handbook as soon as the publication hits the street.
We hope you enjoy the CCTV Handbook 2017 and find something of interest on every page. Your comments, criticisms and suggestions are always welcome. Please send them to andrew@technews.co.za
Andrew Seldon
Editor
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Further reading:
- From the editor’s desk: Converging access control
November 2018, Technews Publishing, News
Welcome to the Access & Identity Management Handbook 2019. Were publishing this in January as opposed to our traditional end-of-year publishing schedule to make sure you have some bed-time reading for ...
- Trust but continually verify
November 2018, Technews Publishing, This Week's Editor's Pick, Access Control & Identity Management, Integrated Solutions, IT infrastructure
Hi-Tech Security Solutions looks at access and identity management and asks some industry players what ‘zero trust’ and ‘least privilege’ access means.
- Managing who, what and why
November 2018, Technews Publishing, This Week's Editor's Pick, Cyber Security
Today’s access control isn’t only concerned with who has access, but also what has access, why they need it and what they are doing with it.
- Physical/logical convergence
November 2018, Technews Publishing, This Week's Editor's Pick, Cyber Security, Integrated Solutions, IT infrastructure
The convergence between physical and logical (or cyber) security will be a game-changer because it will change the way we do everything, from planning to design and all the way to installation and maintenance.
- The expanding role of IT in access control
November 2018, Technews Publishing, This Week's Editor's Pick, Access Control & Identity Management, IT infrastructure
What role is IT playing in the world of physical access control and how far will its role expand in future?
- Taking augmented identity to the world
November 2018, Technews Publishing, This Week's Editor's Pick, Access Control & Identity Management, Integrated Solutions
Hi-Tech Security Solutions spoke to Gary Jones, VP Global Channel and Marketing biometric access and time solutions) at IDEMIA (formerly Morpho) about his career with the company and its new vision of Augmented Identity.
- A scan of fingerprint biometrics
November 2018, Technews Publishing, Access Control & Identity Management
Given the increase in the use of fingerprint technology in public and private organisations, as well as some recent announcements on the reliability or lack or reliability of certain types of sensors and algorithms in the fingerprint biometric market, Hi-Tech Security Solutions spoke to some of the leading fingerprint biometric vendors in the market to find out more about the state of this market.
- BIMS set to change identity management
November 2018, Technews Publishing, Access Control & Identity Management, Integrated Solutions, IT infrastructure
Local biometrics integrator, Ideco Biometric Security Solutions, has announced that its Biometric Identity Management System (BIMS) has been launched to market.
- Your face tells a story
November 2018, Technews Publishing, Access Control & Identity Management, CCTV, Surveillance & Remote Monitoring, Government and Parastatal (Industry)
Facial recognition has advanced to the point where it can be rolled out over large areas and accuracy is no longer a hit-and-miss affair.
- The right access decisions
November 2018, Technews Publishing, This Week's Editor's Pick, Access Control & Identity Management
Making the right access control decision depends on what you want secured and how secure it should be.
- IP is no stranger to access control
November 2018, Technews Publishing, Access Control & Identity Management, Integrated Solutions, IT infrastructure
Just as the surveillance market made the move to IP-based communications, the access control market is also moving to IP (or some say it already has).
- Applying the SaaS model to access control
November 2018, Technews Publishing, Access Control & Identity Management, Integrated Solutions
The software-as-a-service model has proven transformative to many organisations, and even entire industries. The benefits it can offer are undeniable, but in the security sector which is risk-averse by necessity, we wanted to hear the views of some local experts in access control as a service (ACaaS) to find out what some of the pros and cons are.
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