The Search for New Security Structures

The Holy Grail. The Fountain of Youth. The Perfectly Secure Workplace. What do they have in common? People have been searching for them for a long time, but apparently none of them exist. The truth is that no environment is absolutely free from danger. As we begin this search for solutions to the security problems we?e recently been awakened to, we must begin by acknowledging that there are variables that our best systems cannot account for.

What we can do is identify the threats, contain them and minimize our exposure to them. Fire, for example, used to be a real problem for civilization. Today, fire is nowhere near the threat it was just a century ago because fire prevention is woven into our national infrastructure and our personal lives. Fire stations in every neighborhood, fire hydrants on every block, fire alarms on every building, sprinklers in every room and even fire-resistant pajamas on our children have reduced the threat of fire substantially. History is replete with similar accounts of human ingenuity rising to meet and overcome the multitude of dangers confronting it.

We may not be able to completely eliminate the threat of future acts of terrorism but we will find ways to manage it and reduce its impact on our organizations and society. The question is when? How long should we expect it to take to arrive at that more secure state? More importantly, what can we do right now with the knowledge and tools at hand? No one can be certain exactly when we will arrive or what it will look like when we get there, but we can go a long way towards getting there with the technology at our disposal right now.

Since well before Sept. 11, the electronic security industry has been developing technological answers to secure the places we live and work. No doubt we?e all been haunted by the video frame recorded by closed-circuit TV cameras showing alleged terrorist Mohamed Atta passing through an airport metal detector on his way to board one of the doomed airliners. Facial recognition technology developed by AMAG Technology partner Visionics might have been able to identify Atta, who was included on federal law enforcement watch lists, and enable airport security to prevent his boarding the plane. In fact, the U.S. Department of Defense began the Face Recognition Technology (FERET) nine years ago to provide a framework in which this technology would become the viable security solution it is today.

Technology alone is not the answer, but it does play a critical role in our search for new security structures. On the most basic level, security demands that we are aware of our surroundings, that we are vigilant to maintain that awareness over time and that we are able to identify malicious elements before they act. This works well in theory but the reality is that we cannot be everywhere and see everything. That is where security technology can help. And the good news is that much of that technology is available and in use right now.

As we search for a new security structure, let´s coin a new term: "Organic Security. " Organic security is an approach that emulates the form and function of the human nervous system. Just as our nervous system allows us to interact safely with our environment through a complex interrelationship of specialized stimulus receptors, transmission neurons and the brain, electronic security systems can be designed to function in similar ways. In this model, these organic security structures function as extensions of our senses. They expand the reach of our awareness, giving us better, real-time information about activities within and without our facilities. Better information enables us to make better decisions about how to respond to approaching threats much like the way the central nervous system deals with potentially harmful objects.

Concrete Consciousness

"If walls could speak, " the saying goes, "what would they tell us? " Truth is, walls don? speak, but doors do. Doors, gates, turnstiles and other access points are often the only point of contact our workplaces have with their external environment. To follow the organic security analogy, access control technology enables these points of contact to function like the touch receptors that innervate our skin. Our sense of touch allow us to involuntarily distinguish destructive objects and activates our muscles to respond by removing our bodies from the presence of danger.

That is the way access control technology allows a typical corporate security operation center to interact with individuals seeking to enter our workplaces via monitored access points. When an individual requests access, the access control system is programmed to grant or deny entry based on a range of criteria defined by its system administrator. For instance, the system can be configured to allow certain individuals access only to specific points and only at specific times. During an emergency that requires a building to be evacuated, the access control system can indicate who is inside and where they are.

Our brains make innumerable, involuntary decisions about the nature of things we encounter over the course of a day. This process filters out the benign, enabling us to concentrate on those things that constitute genuine threats or opportunities. Access control technology does the same for security administrators. While every request for access at every monitored access point is recorded, only those events that represent potential threats (such as forced entries or broken windows) trigger alarms and free security personnel to concentrate their attention on these dangers. More advanced access control systems can communicate alarms to security personnel via pagers, PDAs or e-mail to ensure they are in touch with their facilities 24/7. As a result, they can be perpetually consciousness of the workplaces they are responsible to secure.

An Evolving Solution

Just as living organisms must adapt to survive environmental changes, AMAG Technology has invested substantial resources to evolve its systems to address changing requirements and threats since it installed its first system in 1970. Early models functioned as stand-alone units that treated each building in a campus environment as a separate system. Each building had its own database of authorized access control cardholders and its own staff to manage it. This arrangement was the best solution available given the technology at hand and the centralized corporate structures then common.

As corporations expanded their global operations and decentralized their infrastructure, access control systems were needed that could network these regional, national and global sites to provide centralized security monitoring and management. In response, AMAG Technology was one of the first to incorporate dial-up networking into their systems and to develop systems for the Windows NT® operating system. More recent advances in information and communications technology have been incorporated in AMAG Technology´s Symmetry Enterprise family of access control systems. Symmetry Enterprise Systems harness the power of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database technology that can accommodate an infinite volume of access requests with minimal impact on network resources.

The Symmetry Enterprise system´s client/server architecture allows a high degree of flexibility in designing systems for highly centralized or decentralized management. For example, an organization wanted to centralize its security operations for all of its national facilities at the headquarters to reduce security staff and database administration costs. In contrast, another organization wanted each of its regional divisions to manage their own access control systems or wanted multiple servers in different locations for redundancy purposes in case the wide area network (WAN) went down. The Symmetry Enterprise system can be configured in just about any away based on each organizations requirements for monitoring, management and investigation.

A Heightened Sense of Perception

Let? pick up on the "organic system" metaphor. Like the neurons that radiate out from the base of the brain into every organ of the human body, miles of copper and fiberoptic cable form the nervous system of access control systems. At the other end of these cables is a microprocessor board called a "controller. " The controller is usually installed out of sight in a secure area and is connected to one or more "readers. " These readers are installed near each access point to form the first point of contact between our work environments and people attempting to access them. Readers compare the identity of the person requesting access against the access control database stored in the controller, which then makes the decision about whether to open the access point or not.

Historically, access control readers have verified the identity of an individual on the basis what they had (e.g., a plastic access control card or similar credential) and/or what they knew (e.g., a personal identification number, or PIN). In this scenario, the cardholder number stored on the card or the PIN corresponded to that person? entry in the access control database. In the mid-1990s, AMAG Technology began to work closely with the U.S. Navy to develop access control systems that would use smart cards as the access credential. The smart card could then be used for secure computer (logical) access, as an electronic purse for cafeteria use and for the storage of pertinent employee records. These AMAG smart card systems are currently being used at U.S. Naval bases in Hawaii, on warships and are being evaluated for use in the Department of Defense? Common Access Card (CAC) project.

Since Sept. 11, a lot of attention has been given to the application of biometric technology in physical access control situations. Well before that time, AMAG Technology began to develop its Symmetry Enterprise system to bring down the formidable technical and cost barriers of actually using this powerful technology. The value proposition is simple: a card can be duplicated (not easy, but possible) or stolen, but a unique physiological characteristic cannot. Biometrics enable access control systems to ask not only, "What do you have? " and "What do you know? " but, "Who are you? " Today? Symmetry Enterprise systems seamlessly integrate the most advanced biometric technologies like facial recognition from Visionics, iris scan from Iridian, hand geometry from Recognition Systems and fingerprint scanning from Bioscrypt. For more information about biometric technology and what AMAG Technology is doing with it, read "Raising Electronic Security I.Q. "

The Invisible Barrier

In the old days, if you wanted more security around your castle you would simply widen the moat and toss in more alligators. In today? highly porous, 24/7 workplaces, it is not in our best interests to adopt a fortress mentality. The fuel of American innovation is the freedom we have to interact and collaborate without restrictions. The plight domestic airports are facing in trying to increase security at the expense of convenience and privacy offers a powerful argument against similar reactivism in our workplaces.

The role police play in society is often referred to as "the thin blue line. " Organic security structures, like electronic access control, in our workplaces can function similarly as an "invisible barrier. " Their greatest benefit is that they are unobtrusive but greatly enhance our ability to be aware of potential threats in and near our organizations. These structures make us perpetually vigilant and help us make better decisions. Decisions that can avert disaster before it visits us and our employees. And the good news is that these technologies are available, not five or ten years from now, but today from AMAG Technology.