School And Safety - Technology Delivers Security To Campus

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Recent high-profile incidents increased student and staff awareness. Schools are requesting more information on video surveillance, access control, panic alarms, and mass-notification systems.- John Wekenborg

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Students and staff are attending school-sponsored seminars on campus security and surrounding-area awareness. Campus security officers, law enforcement, and first responders are increasing their training.- John Wekenborg

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I believe that the schools understand that there is a justified need to adapt new technology and techniques. The real issue is being able to fund these projects.- John Wekenborg

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The most common response I hear is that they are asking for grant money, or if there is any extra money in a construction budget, they will use it on security.- John Wekenborg

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Campus security has changed.- Matt Bretoi

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For years, the campus law enforcement or the campus safety department was looked at as the primary, if not the only, source of security on campus.- Matt Bretoi

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When electronic security, such as surveillance and access control, did start coming into play, it was handled building by building. The campus bookstore may have had a CCTV system, but not the dorms or classroom buildings.- Matt Bretoi

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Security systems, many centered on video surveillance, are proliferating in the education market.- John Grabowski

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The sheer variety and quantity of solutions on the market can be daunting.- John Grabowski

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The level of attention given to security concerns varies from school to school.- Angelo Faenza, Jr.

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In many universities there is a committee, led by the school’s security director, devoted to this topic. But, unfortunately, in other schools, security is a noise.- Angelo Faenza, Jr.

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This is often because there is no budget or simply because there is no one to drive an initiative to upgrade security.- Angelo Faenza, Jr.

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Increased scrutiny [of] security on campuses . . . has led to greater planning and preparation for security concerns.- Jeremy Krinitt

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Regulations, both federal and local, have increased during the past 25 years, beginning with the federal Clery Act in 1990. Many security professional organizations have developed standards and guidelines for campus security.- Jack F. Dowling, CPP, PSP

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Likewise, litigation involving colleges and universities for inadequate, failed, and negligent security has proliferated.- Jack F. Dowling, CPP, PSP

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Managing liability is one of the highest priorities for any organization. Campuses are always looking for new methods to limit their liability and are recognizing that incident management software is a vital resource to limit liability.- Brian McIlravey, CPP

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This provides a method for documenting incidents and analysis of the data collected in order to investigate trends and patterns on campus and help prevent further incidents.- Brian McIlravey, CPP

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This type of software is also very important from a reporting perspective, as it documents incident response and follow-up, including the who, what, where, when, and why of every incident.- Brian McIlravey, CPP

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Every campus faces ongoing technology challenges. When campus networks were designed, they were designed for education and administration purposes, primarily connecting to desktop computers, servers, and the Internet.- John Wekenborg

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Now, most campuses have gone mobile and are trying to keep up with the growing demand for BYOD [bring your own device]. Then, security comes along with high-definition cameras and network-based access control, asking for space on an already taxed network.- John Wekenborg

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The next big challenge is that you do not want your security system hacked; so, there is a need to segment access to the security system from the campus community and the World Wide Web.- John Wekenborg

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This requires updated switching and routing infrastructure. Then, once you have all of these systems in place, you have to hire people that are capable of operating and supporting this equipment.- John Wekenborg

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The upfront cost of the security systems is funded through a variety of grants, capital improvement projects, and endowments. One college fraternity/sorority ran a fundraiser to purchase cameras.- John Wekenborg

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The servers need to be in a climate-controlled area. This means air conditioning costs.- John Wekenborg

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Most jurisdictions have laws in place that define what the levels of expected privacy are. They direct us by defining when audio can or cannot be used, where cameras can be placed, and what type of signage is required when these devices are being used.- John Wekenborg

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Most campuses that are using these systems will restrict who can have access to recorded video and access-control data. No one wants an incident that is under investigation showing up on YouTube or Twitter.- John Wekenborg

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The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act [FERPA] regulations ensure the privacy of student records, and information to confirm compliance related to physical access is required in case of an audit or other compliance issue.- Ajay Jain

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To meet these and other regulatory requirements, school administrators rely on a variety of tools, including auditable records that show who had access to restricted areas on campus-whether it’s a data center or a location with physical records.- Ajay Jain

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In general, automated, rules-based monitoring, enforcement, and reporting of compliance requirements meet these regulatory demands while also increasing the safety of students, faculty, and staff.- Ajay Jain

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The ethical questions rest more in the use of the information generated from these solutions, just as we see in the debate around personal information on the Internet.- Jeremy Krinitt

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Campuses must look closely and provide clarity about the policies regarding the use of security information, just as they do with other personal information.- Jeremy Krinitt

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Local jurisdictions will define where and how video and audio can be used. There are no federal regulations that tell a campus they must do certain things when it pertains to a security system.- John Wekenborg

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Homeland Security and the FBI have published documents with recommendations for campus security, but they are recommendations only.- John Wekenborg

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There are numerous evolving standards and best practices that provide guidance in the design of campus security systems.- Steve Surfaro

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One recent example is the State of Connecticut’s Report of the School Safety Infrastructure Council, revised and updated [on] February 4, 2014. This standard provides guidance for surveillance and access-control design and deployment in campus facilities.- Steve Surfaro

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We tend to focus on protecting the hundreds or thousands of physical keys that are used daily on campuses.- Morse Watchmans

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There are many reasons to make planning for control and management of those keys a fundamental component of campus security programming.- Morse Watchmans

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For preventing and mitigating risk, the importance of good incident-management software cannot be overstated.- Brian McIlravey

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Software can analyze data from thousands of endpoints, such as door readers, access points, alarms, and related personnel. Analyzing the data determines trends, weaknesses, and opportunities, and provides a graphical dashboard view of the state of a campus security infrastructure.- Ajay Jain

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Managing identities in the campus environment is a challenge, but new physical identity access management [PIAM] software systems help meet the challenge by creating a single identity to be used in multiple systems campus-wide.- Ajay Jain

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Software systems can streamline time-consuming and inefficient processes in the campus security environment, from issuing I.D. badges to managing databases to assigning access privileges across multiple physical access-control systems.- Ajay Jain

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As well, any activity, event, or status at any point in the identity lifecycle is reportable and auditable. If vulnerability is identified, school administrators can review and take the necessary action to rectify procedures or activities.- Ajay Jain

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Video-management software [VMS] systems are a central component of IP [Internet protocol] surveillance. VMS systems are designed with efficiency tools.- Gadi Piran

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Combined with an event-management platform, VMS systems integrate with an array of physical security solutions . . . to provide the information to safeguard the campus and make informed decisions.- Gadi Piran

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While a full complement of well-placed high-definition [HD] and high-megapixel video-surveillance cameras can provide situational awareness, incidents do not always take place between the hours of 9 and 5 when the control room might be fully staffed and able to monitor events.- Gadi Piran

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To address this, new VMS technology enables standard definition and HD/megapixel cameras to stream at full-frame rates over low-speed connections or limited-bandwidth networks.- Gadi Piran

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Video streams through the cloud can be monitored at full-frame rates (with less than one-second lag) including the ability to digitally control pan, tilt, and zoom functions. Streams can then be encrypted to enable a secure connection both inside and outside a school network.- Gadi Piran

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High-Definition Interactive Streaming [HDIS] technology makes mobile devices part of the solution, with full-motion playback of up to 16 HD video streams of live or recorded video, at their original frame rate, with PTZ [pan-tilt-zoom] control over limited bandwidth network connections, such as 3G and 4G cellular.- Gadi Piran

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Individuals in the field can view video and alerts on a smartphone or tablet or use their device to send video images of an incident in progress.- Gadi Piran

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Access control is another high priority; however, due to costs this will be an ongoing topic for the next 10 years and beyond.- Brian McIlravey

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Many campuses are moving to the use of smart cards which can be used across the campus for access control as well as libraries, transportation, food, and other services.- Brian McIlravey

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Most universities currently use magnetic-stripe cards or low-frequency (125 kilohertz/kHz) cards, often known as proximity (or prox) cards. While these cards have clearly been popular choices in the past, they simply do not provide the level of security or adaptability that are needed to protect campuses as security threats continue to evolve.- Brett St. Pierre

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The best way to protect students, faculty, and staff is with high-frequency contactless smart card technology that uses mutual authentication and cryptographic protection mechanisms with secret keys and a secure messaging protocol delivered on a trust-based platform.- Brett St. Pierre

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There has been an increasing university trend toward using stronger authentication contactless smart cards on campus to increase card protection.- Brett St. Pierre

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Some campuses have immediate concerns that accelerate adoption, while some choose to start the migration by deploying combination readers for new buildings or combination cards for incoming freshmen. Either way, these campuses are preparing for the future and will end up with a complete migration over time.- Brett St. Pierre

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The latest access-control platforms are designed to make it significantly easier to secure more doors, with more flexibility and adaptability, using a combination of smart cards and mobile devices, such as smartphones. Plus, the platform enables students, faculty, and staff to do more with these cards and devices than just open doors.- Brett St. Pierre

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Perhaps the biggest impetus for the proliferation of security solutions, though, was the advent of combination reader platforms. It is difficult to do a rip-and-replace upgrade of existing technology.- Brett St. Pierre

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When multi-technology readers became available, it gave universities the ability to read current card technology as well as future smart card technology. With the latest series of readers, universities that have not yet made a smart card platform decision have much more flexibility to choose from a long list of smart cards.- Brett St. Pierre

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Whether it is access to sensitive areas of the campus like data centers or protected access to buildings for only students, staff, and faculty, we are beginning to see a shift away from older forms of access like tokens, cards, and PINs, to more secure methods of identification like biometrics.- J. Kent Schrock

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Each item or system has its own job to do. No one system is more important than the other. When implemented properly, each system will complement the other, creating a complete, integrated security solution.- John Wekenborg

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You need people who value and want to use that data. Knowing who is going in and out of a building and not doing anything with that information is useless.- Angelo Faenza, Jr.

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If you have a break-in and don’t use the audit trail capability, you are not leveraging that technology.- Angelo Faenza, Jr.

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In many situations we have seen how the deployment of a card technology for access control can help change the culture with the students.- Angelo Faenza, Jr.

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When everyone becomes responsible for his or her security and feels accountable for others around him or her, they are more likely to comply. This can be as simple as not using your card to allow people you don’t know into a building.- Angelo Faenza, Jr.

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In a campus environment, a security system is not just hardware and software. It is a well-defined plan with processes and procedures that allow you to react proportionately to the information that you are receiving from the electronic systems and community.- John Wekenborg

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The security hardware is a tool. This tool can make your security and administrative staff very efficient. It can be a deterrent. It can also help to reduce man hours and investigative costs, but without the brains behind the machine, all you have is a tool.- John Wekenborg

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Security technology on campus is only as good as those who use the technology and those who monitor and respond to the technology.- Jack Dowling

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Security at a college and university is a shared responsibility. For example, the campus community must use the blue-light emergency phones to notify the campus security and police of suspicious or criminal activity, and the campus security and police must be immediately available and provide a prompt response.- Jack Dowling

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A failure of either party will render the security technology ineffective.- Jack Dowling

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In a recent student survey regarding campus safety, one of the number-one recommendations is officer presence. There is still a strong need to see staff.- Brian McIlravey

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Technology alone cannot solve all the issues related to safety on campus. At the end of the data trail there will always be a need for people to recognize and respond to danger, analyze trends, and make changes and recommendations for improving safety based on information provided by the technology.- Brian McIlravey