I just bought an Android tablet after living exclusively in the Apple iOS world for the past couple years. The cost of the cheaper Android tablet was great, and my geek side surely will enjoy the customization options in the days ahead. However, what I do not look forward to are potential security issues.
All of the reports in recent years have exposed the fact that the Android environment is more susceptible to being compromised than IoS, however, recently even that is becoming a matter of degree as cracks in the Apple armor have been exposed. The one as somebody who is in the tech industry and tries to be vigilant that should make us Android users be somewhat concerned is the Stagefright vulnerability which hopefully will not make it into the wild.
To be frank, Stagefright is pretty scary. Anyone with an Android mobile device who is vulnerable to the exploit should be thinking about it, and that’s roughly close to 1 billion devices at last count. What makes Stagefright so frightening is that it isn’t just a malware exploit that cause significant grief. In what might be considered a perverse flip side of ease-of-use, Stagefright is unfortunately about ease-of-infection. It loads itself onto an Android device with nothing more than an MMS message. A message with a carefully crafted media attachment can infect the Android device without any user intervention.
As noted in a recent Alcatel-Lucent blog post, Android Vulnerability Stagefright Highlights Need for Increased Focus on Security, by Kevin McNamee, Director, Motive Security Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, vulnerabilities like this are a ringing endorsement for network-based malware detection systems such as Alcatel-Lucent’s Motive Security Guardian. Putting aside the highlighting of Alcatel-Lucent’s unique offering in this space, McNamee does make a compelling argument as to why despite device-based anti-malware, the only way to effectively stop Stagefright and similar types of malware attacks is at the network level.
As McNamee explains, most malware communicates over the network, between the device and the hackers’ command and control servers. It is this communications that only a network provider can detect and respond to quickly. He also notes, the issues with Android make it that much more important for service providers—caught amid Google, the device manufacturers and the end consumer in terms of distribution of updates that will protect the devices—to leverage their positions as positive men in the middle.
They can identify malware flows across the network and alert users if a device has become infected. This is good for keeping users safe rapidly and also goof for the operator as traffic from malware-infected mobile devices can quickly become a network burden on several levels bringing service down to intolerable levels or even a halt.
The interesting thing about the attention that has been paid the Stagefright vulnerability is that it not only shined a light on a nasty security vulnerability that we all must be aware of, but also does illustrate an opportunity for the mobile service provider to become part of a holistic security solution for the mobile subscriber. After all, such network-based malware detection can be not just a revenue opportunity for operators, but one that subscribers are likely to willingly pay a premium for.
While most customers don’t think about mobile device security now, it would be easy enough to change that with a marketing campaign and a few particularly horrendous malware outbreaks such as Stagefright. Especially if the industry has an actionable response like a network-based security service subscribers could purchase.
My new Android tablet is nice so far—but it does have its downsides. Security is one of them, but it appears that with a little vigilance on my part, and that of my service provider if they are willing, that I can rest a bit easier with my decision to switch from iOS.
]]>The Internet of Things is based on the concept of sharing large amounts of data – even if it’s a little bit at a time – in real time. The collection and analysis of such data can allow for better business intelligence, higher levels of safety and security, lower cost and more proactive maintenance, and potentially improved health and welfare.
But more connectivity and more data sharing also can mean more potential for security problems.
As a recent piece on The Washington Post suggested: “Concerned about people hacking into your email? Just wait until they hack into your bathroom mirror and release your naked selfies to the Internet. In an interview last year with Harvard Business Review, security expert Bruce Schneier suggested that the Internet of Things would be harder to secure than the web, mostly because ‘these are devices that are made cheaply with very low margins, and the companies that make them don’t have the expertise to secure them.’”
Verizon’s “2015 Data Breach Investigations Report” released in April 15 notes that 5 billion IoT devices are expected to be in service by the end of the decade and predicts increased privacy-related issues related to wearables and medical devices. It also says that M2M device breaches might become the source of breaches into the larger network and lead to the development of tools like Shodan, designed to take advantages of weaknesses in the IoT. The report goes on to suggest that organizations with IoT implementations do threat modeling and attack exercises to determine potential attackers and their goals, and then figure out where sensitive data lives and how to secure it.
“IoT security has multiple enemies: human error, poorly designed or tested software, paparazzi, individual stalkers, hackers, governments – the list goes on,” Scott Nelson, CTO of IoT consultancy Logic PD, recently told TMCnet. “Security is important, in many applications critical, but it is also fleeting.”
The answer to IoT security, Nelson said, “is a combination of appropriate technology, contextual awareness, and good business judgment.”
Alcatel-Lucent, a veteran of the communications arena, is among the companies that help organizations implement and secure their IoT and M2M implementations.
“You need to keep sensitive data safe at all times,” Thierry Sens, Marketing Director Transportation Segment, Alcatel-Lucent noted in a recent blog, The Internet of (hacked) Things. “And you need to keep satisfying consumers with compelling applications.”
That, Alcatel-Lucent says, calls for solutions that:
IoT through its explosion of network-connected devices is what those with malicious intent would consider a target-rich hacking opportunity for creating havoc. However, as Alcatel-Lucent explains a holistic approach to IoT deployments can and will greatly mitigate the risks.
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Originally posted on Alcatel-Lucent Blog February 3, 2015
Talk of “cyber armies” working on behalf of nations might once have been the work of Hollywood, but recent events have demonstrated the opening of a new front in the global war on terror: cyber security.
High-profile attacks on film studios, a US military Twitter account, and several US retailers have led President Barack Obama to declare that cyber terrorism is "one of the biggest threats to national security" and that his administration is working to develop better intelligence on cyber threats. "No foreign nation, no hacker, should be able to shut down our networks, steal our trade secrets, or invade the privacy of American families, especially our kids," Obama said during his State of the Union address on January 20.
The head of cyber defence for the French military, Arnaud Coustilliere, also expressed his concern at apparent attacks on French websites in the wake of the terrorist tragedy in Paris on January 7. "What's new, what's important is that this is 19,000 sites." Coustilliere said. "That's never been seen before."
A similar cyber attack at an unnamed German steel factory in 2014, which sabotaged parts of the control system resulting in severe damage to a blast furnace, show that it's not just web servers and databases that are under threat, but complete ICT (information and communications technology) infrastructure. Train, air and road traffic control systems are as a result all vulnerable, which poses unthinkable consequences for governments around the world.
There is currently a widespread misconception that IP communication networks are more susceptible to attack than a proprietary or TDM network. However, the German steel plant attack in 2014 and the hacking of legacy and proprietary industrial SCADA infrastructure in the Middle East by Flame and Stuxnet worms in 2012 show any kind of infrastructure is vulnerable.
Alcatel-Lucent has consistently invested in researching and developing highly secure solutions for its communications networks and infrastructure to ward off potential threats and provide added peace of mind to its customers.
For example, IP network infrastructure utilizes Network Access Control (NAC), encryption, and traffic anomaly detection. IP/MPLS also uses traffic segregation and isolation, which means that if one VPN network is compromised, the attacker cannot reach out to other VPN domains.
In addition, to detect intrusions and protect optical fiber networks, Alcatel-Lucent integrates advanced security features into its DWDM optical equipment, 1830 Photonic Service Switch. Layer 1 encryption of high-speed lines (10G), which are based on AES 256, one of the most advanced market standards, guarantees data integrity and confidentiality, and by preventing latency of even a few microseconds, does not compromise performance.
This type of encryption is ideal to secure the transmission of real-time high-speed data used by data centers, cloud infrastructure, and all critical communications. For railway operators, airports, road authorities and government agencies, which rely on these networks, constant availability is essential. However, with cyber threats only likely to become more sophisticated, they should be mindful of taking necessary precautions to avoid becoming the cyber terrorists' next victim.
See a detailed demonstration of how to fully protect the confidentiality of the information carried over the fiber:
A recent U.S. survey by Alcatel-Lucent Motive found that 71% of smartphones had no security protection to defend against malware. That’s a sobering stat considering the 20% rate at which mobile malware is increasing annually. The malicious activity can degrade smartphone performance, secretly pirates your data minutes, and steal personal information from you, spy on your whereabouts and track your browsing calls, texts, emails and web browsing.
Now here’s where the survey gets even more interesting: It reveals 65% of mobile subscribers think it’s the service provider’s responsibility to protect their smartphones. And the majority is willing to pay their service provider for this mobile service – up to $4.40 per month!
For operators continually on the hunt for new revenue generating services and “sticky” offers that attract and retain subscribers, device security services is a lucrative and differentiating opportunity right under their nose.
Operators already have a trusted billing relationship with customers. So who is more uniquely positioned to protect customers’ connections and content than the service provider? By defending customers’ devices against malware, operators are protecting their own networks, strengthening their relationship with customers and ensuring subscribers have a high quality service experience.
Opportunity Knocks
Motive Security Labs (formerly Kindsight Security Labs) conservatively estimates that 15 million mobile devices are infected with malware at any one time. And with LTE and VoLTE devices flooding today’s market, subscribers are spending increasingly more time browsing the Web, accessing data and consuming video. As a consequence of being more active on the Internet, subscriber devices will be at greater risk of infection, which can cause unwanted traffic over an operator’s network.
Service providers are wise to take the steps necessary to prevent infections that can also sour the customer service experience and potentially slow network performance. To do this, service providers need a cloud-based, network-driven security solution that can be rapidly deployed and scaled. Because it resides on the network, the security service is always-on and up-to-date and can pinpoint malware on subscriber devices without having to be installed on them.
Alcatel-Lucent’s newly announced Motive Security Guardian fits that description: operators gain real-time insight into what subscribers and devices most affected by malware and the most common types of malware to better contain and block threats. It also enables operators to better understand how malware impacts their network resources and performance to arrive at strategies for improved efficiency and service delivery optimization. And by correlating malicious activity on the network to infected subscriber devices, it enables operators to proactively alert subscribers and provide step-by step instructions on how to remove the threat.
Seize the Opportunity (Before your competitor does)
Device security is an ideal path to service provider differentiation, new revenue and subscriber loyalty. Here’s proof:
InnoTrans might have been and gone for another two years but Alcatel-Lucent’s highlights from the world’s largest railway exhibition live on in three videos which are now available to view at any time online.
Hall 4.1 was entirely dedicated to Train Control and Communications for railway networks and Alcatel-Lucent’s expertise in this critical field was shown in four key demonstrations: Converged IP/MPLS Network for Railways, Agile Optical Network for Railways, Long Term Evolution (LTE) ground-to-train communications, and Cloud Connected Passenger. A short overview of all of these solutions and their specific applications is now available to view here.
As the video shows, Alcatel-Lucent’s LTE Ground-to-Train solutions will be deployed in the Grand Paris project’s Telecom System for Future Urban Transport (Systuf). This new communications system is based on LTE, and to demonstrate the capabilities of LTE at InnoTrans, Alcatel-Lucent set up a live LTE network which hosted multiple mission-critical and non mission-critical applications. This included on-board CCTV, emergency communications, live driver view footage feeds, platform video feeds, train location services, and Tetra/PMR voice.
This live LTE network was also the foundation of Alcatel-Lucent’s Cloud Connection demonstration, which offered a vision of what the passenger train of the future might look like. The next generation of on-board infotainment services which leverage ultra-broadband connectivity were shown in a multimedia table. As the video shows, the table incorporates on board IPTV, video on-demand services, and online shopping, while passengers can use the service to book a table in the train restaurant, or check to see whether the toilet is occupied.
Perhaps the highlight exhibit for Alcatel-Lucent’s was the world-premiere presentation of its Converged IP/MPLS Network for Railways. The demonstration showed how Alcatel-Lucent’s IP/MPLS service routers and switches can build a single converged communications network infrastructure that supports all railways services and applications including signalling, as well as provide a smooth migration of existing legacy systems like analogue CCTV and GSM-R base stations to the new network. A brief overview is available in the first video, but for a detailed demonstration of IP/MPLS and its capabilities click here.
An in-depth look at Alcatel-Lucent’s agile optical networks for railways is also available in the overview and a third video. This technology is intended to counter cyber security threats to mission-critical applications, with Alcatel-Lucent’s latest solutions, Wavelength Tracker, and the 1830 Phototonic Service Switch (PSS), which constantly monitors optical losses and detects any intrusions, on display. PSS can also be fitted with the AES-256 layer 1 encryption module to preserve the integrity of the network, providing network operators with added peace of mind that their networks are protected from even the most sophisticated security threats.
With over 130,000 visitors from more than 100 countries in attendance, the 10th anniversary edition of InnoTrans was the largest exhibition yet. It was also a big success for Alcatel-Lucent. We hope you enjoy our round up of the highlights from our exhibit.
]]>“The necessity of an IP network transformation is due to the increasing need to host more services and its ability to converge these onto a single piece of infrastructure to provide a truly multi-service network,” Stefano Pasetti, director of mobile and telecommunications for Milan’s metro rail service provider, Azienda Trasporti Milanese (ATM), said recently in a blog post by Alcatel-Lucent.
“The introduction of VoIP systems and the necessity to guarantee different ‘Quality of Service’ parameters led to a review of what we could do to improve the architecture and technology in use,” noted Pasetti, referring to the rail communications upgrade the firm made in 2010. ATM upgraded to an IP/MPLS infrastructure.
This migration included an upgrade of teleoperation systems, of remote control of signaling system and electrification plants, and the rollout of a digital TETRA for train-to-wayside communications. The upgrade also extended its video surveillance and video recording systems based on IP protocol. The solution now delivers broadband links for office information and Local Area Network (LAN) systems at the company’s offices and depots.
“This communication network is designed to be resilient and to guarantee high reliability for critical services like the new SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system of underground metro Line 3,” he noted. “The surveillance system is now in operation on Lines 1 and 2 and has enabled ATM to install more cameras at more locations, providing better coverage and improving passenger security.”
Upgrading from separated service networks to a converged IP/MPLS multi-service network that provides dynamic communications offers a step-change in operational flexibility and efficiency while reducing the total cost of ownership, according to a blog post by Alcatel-Lucent.
“IP networks, and particularly IP/MPLS, bring safety-related train control communications and operational applications under a single unified infrastructure, which also has the flexibility and capacity to bear new railway applications,” noted the blog.
Portugal’s REFER Telecom also has benefited from a move to a converged IP network.
REFER deployed an IP native technology in 2004 through Alcatel-Lucent, and in 2008 it moved to IP/MPLS technology.
“The signaling team has acknowledged the improvements,” noted João Figueiras, head of data networks for REFER Telecom.
“In Europe it is common to have completely separate legacy communication infrastructures dedicated to railway signaling, but we wanted to be able to run everything on IP,” Figueiras explained. “This meant we needed our IP network to meet certain communication requirements and be robust against inter-traffic impact while offering a flexible configuration, which is provided by the IP/MPLS technology.”
For rail communications, the future is IP/MPLS. For some railway operations, that future is already here today.
]]>Long-term evolution (LTE) is driving many changes in the IT landscape, not the least of which is operational security in mass transit. Railway operators and law enforcement agencies are using a range of CCTV technologies in a variety of situations to improve public safety. Alcatel-Lucent’s TrackTalk e-zine is a great source for information and insights on what LTE can do for enabling a host of capabilities including significantly upgrading in a cost-effective manner video surveillance, IP camera monitoring and what the future of CCTV and surveillance will look like.
In a recent article that takes an expert view perspective, aptly titled, The Changing Face of Operational Security, Jeremy Haskey, Transportation System Integration Division, Alcatel-Lucent notes that, “The hype surrounding the development of LTE is justified…With greater capacity, it has the potential to revolutionize video surveillance by carrying live high-definition video to individual handheld devices carried by security personnel, staff in control centers or directly to the emergency services. The HD images will improve zoom quality making grainy images associated with current CCTV applications a thing of the past.”
Optimization of railway operational security includes design as a major consideration for the effective application of large CCTV networks as well as selecting the right technology from the range of CCTV equipment available to optimize the return on investment. Indeed, once such a system is in place, inevitably all of this information has to go somewhere to be managed and responded to in an effective manner. Multiple voice communications systems, including passenger communications points and security stations also need to be coordinated.
Alcatel-Lucent’s Integrated Communication Management System (ICMS), for example, acts as the facilitator of this information, also providing operators with the tools to respond to a specific incident. It is part of the company’s overall view on providing railway operators with a comprehensive video protection solution such as the one it is providing with France’s RATP to the Paris Metro system.
“With no single standard available for all emergency services’ and transport operators’ communication equipment, these systems are often not compatible with each other,” says Haskey. The ICMS can decode the information from the various communication and security surveillance systems that are in place, providing integrated communication paths between the different organizations.
To summarize, while LTE technology is still in its initial stages of development, as it evolves, it is imminent that LTE will become the platform that the next generation of security can be built on and developed by the technological community. For more information you may wish to check out the latest issue of TrackTalk which not only has valuable insights but links to many useful resources.“Your surveillance network should dictate your power and equipment requirements, not the other way around. Often operators tell me they want 50 cameras. I ask them what they think every one of those cameras should be doing. It’s very easy to over-engineer systems and overwhelm your ICT network with unnecessary data.”
In addressing network operators in a recent article in Alcatel-Lucent’s Tracktalk, Making the case for Enhanced Rail Security Systems, the above expert advice was provided by Dave Gorshkov, CEO of Digital Grape Business Services.
“Security is essential to the modern railway, protecting passengers, staff the operator’s assets from diverse range of risks including terrorism, crime, trespass, and vandalism,” he continued, noting that few security systems are installed without the support of a robust business case.
Gorshkov’s comments underscore the need to consider the functional requirements for optimizing a video surveillance system from the beginning of such a project. In addition, the capability of supporting ICT infrastructure needs to be scaled to the data volume.
Since 2006, the U.S. government has awarded more than $1.6 billion in Transportation Security Grants (TSAs). Most of this funding is directed to large metropolitan areas where the safety risks are judged to be greatest, with high-impact projects that guard against terrorism given priority.
Before initiating such a large-scale project, operators first need to create a systems requirements specification (SRS) that outlines the safety, operational, and security features of the proposed installation, which will help to ensure that camera compression and memory systems are designed to meet the operators’ specific operational needs.
Camera design and system architecture need to be considered carefully as part of the overall design process as do data storage and transmission capacity, Gorshkov added. Among the key questions that should be asked during the planning phase are:
The ability to upgrade in future is an important consideration if the system is expected to have a long service life, Gorshkov added. Future considerations are critical in the early planning stages. Ten years ago networks operated with 5-10mbps transmission based on a handful of cameras. Today there are installations with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of IP-based cameras that require hundreds of megabytes or gigabytes of capacity. In another 10 years, network needs will change yet again.
Alcatel-Lucent’s Critical WAN Infrastructure solution offers a route to this new infrastructure, avoiding disruption while laying the ground for migration to an all-IP network and allowing public transportation systems the ability to provide comprehensive security solutions in a cost-effective manner.
The use of video surveillance as a public safety and security tool is growing. Partially, that’s because homeland security regulations and initiatives around the world are driving deployment. It’s also because high capacity wireless data networks have brought down the cost of infrastructure to the point where the ability to provide comprehensive coverage is practical and cost-effective.
However, it should be noted that the initial investment and operation and maintenance costs of video surveillance can be significant. This is highlighted by the fact that protection responsibility is shifting from police/military to infrastructure owners.
“In the US energy market, for example, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation-Critical Infrastructure Protection regulations require that utilities tightly control access to their most important infrastructure,” notes Sheridan Nye, Senior Analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media’s Enterprise Verticals practice, in a LifeTalk article, “Is Video Surveillance Worth the Investment?”
Since the security benefits of video surveillance can be significant, companies and organizations either voluntarily looking to deploy this technology, or those compelled to do so by regulations, are considering a variety of strategies to justify the expense and achieve cost savings. One of these is to look at indirect cost savings that can be viewed as return on investment (ROI) for capital expenditures on security network infrastructure.
For video surveillance systems, Nye notes, ROI is usually indirect, and comes from multiple sources. He further states that, “Protecting assets … has a direct impact on insurance premiums as well as meeting regulatory requirements.”
In the U.K., video surveillance is being embraced to counter metal theft, which is a big problem. Copper, which fetches a high (and rising) price, is especially appealing to thieves. The rail industry in the U.K. alone lost £43 million worth of metal in the last three years, and companies are spending at least £12 million each year on security to prevent metal theft.
Although video surveillance may not be able to prevent this theft in the first place, items like pipes and cables can be visibly marked to be traceable if stolen. In fact, situational awareness, public safety officials being able to deploy pervasive video surveillance and potential bad actors knowing it is present, is also a deterrent to potential thieves.
As potentially useful as video surveillance can be for security, it’s especially difficult for public safety agencies to afford the technology, since there have been major funding cuts in the past several years due to the recession. Often, video surveillance is only an option if the cost is shared with other organizations.
“Video is an example of a service that can be shared between the transport service and the police or other agencies like the ambulance service,” Nye points out. This is why being able to leverage the deployment of LTE is so critical since they dramatically cut the costs of deploying a wired-based video surveillance network and can be share by multiple parties.
In addition, complementary technology, such as motion detectors, can also reduce the cost of operating video surveillance systems. Compressing video to lower quality when precise imagery isn’t necessary can also help by boosting efficiency and network capacity.
The most recent issue of LifeTalk which features multiple articles on the issues and value of deploying a comprehensive video surveillance capability is worth a read. It includes a variety of perspective as well as information about the differences between U.K. and U.S. markets, projections for deployment growth along with features on partnering and what the Sao Paulo Militar are doing in Brazil .
In the face of global threats and terrorist acts, collaboration and sharing best practices can help railway operators optimize their security capabilities. In addition, improving rail security by upgrading communications capabilities allows railroad providers a single, high-capacity network that can support multiple applications. In fact, such new applications improve the transportation experience for customers and enable railroads to keep existing riders and attract new ones.
A recent Alcatel-Lucent article in its TrackTalk e-zine for railways communications enttitled, “Partnerships are the key to a secure railway,” looked at how the rail industry is responding to the security challenges of the 21st century with solutions such as IP MPLS broadband networks and CCTV systems.
Some key highlights from the article include:
As the article points out, customarily, metro and main line critical infrastructure for rail networks has been based on complete yet inflexible systems designed to move data through fiber optic and microwave transmissions. However, with the world becoming more risky and threats occurring in possibly unorthodox manners, including such things as cyber attacks, a premium is now being placed on communications flexibility to ensure responsiveness in an effective and timely manner.
It is for this reason, as the article details, that security strategies need to be continuously updated. As Jacques Colliard, head of the Security Division of the International Union of Railways (UIC), says however, this updating and the need for flexibility must be done in the context of country and cultural difference. In other words, solutions cannot generically be transferred from one place to another they need to be adaptable.
Colliard continued citing that ideally operators will collaborate to discover best practices, however, variance in local conditions and requirements means the application of security technology varies widely around the world and therefore the standardization of systems is an unlikely goal. “Rail security systems cannot be entirely standardized because they need to meet specific regulatory and operational needs at a national and local level,” he explained.
This is by no means meant to say that partnerships and collaboration are ineffective. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The idea is to take what works in one place, and adapt it to local conditions. However, given the communications-intensive nature of public safety capabilities for use by public transportation authorities, especially for things like the expansion of deployment of video surveillance systems, legacy communications network are increasingly not up to the task.
This is why Alcatel-Lucent and leading transportation agencies, with a push from their public safety executives, are focusing on a new critical wide area network (WAN) infrastructure as part of a roadmap to an all IP-based network of the future.
It is a WAN solution that relies on a converged IP/MPLS-based communications to support network resiliency, quality of service, virtualization, synchronous Ethernet, convergence and a management platform that automates and simplifies operations management. It also can be easily integrated with new 4G LTE networks. These wireless networks are being deployed to provide vital communications links for video surveillance, other machine-to-machine (M2M) monitoring solutions and improved customer on-board experiences.
In fact, as can be seen from reading other TrackTalk features in the most recent issue, new wired and wireless networks not only enable railway operators to offer improved protection of physical assets and passengers, but also enable faster and more effective response capabilities in case of an emergency whether it be local or more widespread.
Video surveillance is one technology that law enforcement officials increasingly rely on use to protect public safety. But, traditional hardwired systems are expensive, time-consuming to set up, and often produce unreliable results.
As an alternative, agencies in the U.S. and elsewhere are turning to 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks for the creation, deployment and expansion of sophisticated video surveillance networks.
A good example is Polícia de Estado de So Paulo (São Paulo State Military Police)—the agency charged with crime prevention, order maintenance, traffic control, and firefighting in Brazil’s most populous state. As highlighted in a recent article in the Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) e-zine LifeTalk, it has been experimenting with an ALU supplied LTE network.
Polícia Militar has a force of more than 100,000 police officers, covering the 96,000 square mile state with a population of 41 million (more than California). The agency uses video surveillance to efficiently and effectively prevent crime.
Colonel Alfredo Deak Jr., who oversees the agency’s telecommunications system, stated in the article that, “Even with 100,000 police officers, the police cannot be everywhere and see everything, all the time…The presence of overt video surveillance… provides a sense of security for São Paulo’s citizens, who see the police cameras and know there is someone operating and monitoring it proactively.”
Two problems with traditional hardwired video surveillance networks have hindered the speed at which they could be deployed and their effectiveness in São Paulo: bureaucracy and cost. As the article details, there is so much red tape associated with setting up a hardwired network in Sao Paulo that it can take 6-9 months to install a surveillance camera. In addition, non-LTE video cameras installed on the street cost, on average, 55,000 Brazilian reals ($29,270) each. By comparison, the total installation cost of LTE cameras is five times less at roughly 10,000 Reals ($5,322).
“LTE is a tool that allows efficient communications redundancy for applications such as video surveillance,” Deak said in the article. “It allows me to use my APCO 25 system towers which support my mission critical voice communication network with much less cost.”
Redundancy built into the LTE network means Polícia Militar is able to cost-effectively keep video surveillance monitoring up in all areas, by swapping out one tower for another to cover a specific region. The result has been that in Sao Paulo, the LTE network has transformed video surveillance into a much more powerful and versatile tool.
Deak said the video surveillance network is especially useful during disaster and emergency situations. It enables police officers on the scene, and those directing operations remotely, to communicate more efficiently and respond more effectively. Deak illustrated this by saying, “A real-time video image allows the commander to see what is happening with his own eyes, from multiple perspectives, and apply his own experience and training to that scenario.” He also praised the power of dual band and talk-to-talk broadband capabilities for allowing responders to communicate in hostile environments.
Polícia Militar also uses intelligence from video surveillance to prevent excessive use of force.
“The intensive use of intelligence to prevent the intensive use of force,” Deak explained. “The more intelligence and the more the police officer is prepared, the more information and knowledge he has about an emergency, the less force he will use to protect himself and the citizen.”
Deak said two types of activities tend to reduce crime: approaching suspicious persons, and removing alcohol, drugs and weapons from circulation. Video surveillance is a powerful tool that effort.
The LTE trial in Sao Paulo also addresses another requirement: the ability to buy technology form local vendors that builds on, rather than replaces, existing infrastructure. The LTE trial… has drawn the Polícia Militar and Alcatel-Lucent together with a focus on allowing the adaptation of our existing tablets, of our equipment, of our current software to the infrastructure provided by the trial,” Deak noted. “It is most important to allow Brazilian industry to begin to create devices for it.”
It is no secret that vigilance, especially when bad actors know they are being watched, is an extremely strong deterrent to crime, as well as being a critical component of effective emergency preparedness and response. The ability to provide high-bandwidth, secure, reliable communications for video surveillance over LTE wireless give law enforcement agencies not just the capabilities and coverage they require, but at a price/performance that is superior to wired alternatives.
By Mae Kowalke
When it comes to public safety, how much oversight and surveillance is enough, and how much is too much? Where do you draw the line between safety and invasion of privacy? These are questions policymakers and law enforcement officials struggle with every day. There are usually no easy answers.
A good starting point is to look at the role technologies like video surveillance can play in public safety, and what applications such technologies are most effective for particularly for providing an adequate degree of situational awareness.
Video surveillance is very prevalent in the U.K. where the typical person is recorded 20 times a day. It is gaining ground in the U.S. where post-9/11 has made people feel less safe and created a desire to have their “guardians” always watching in public spaces. However, omnipresence for the sake of security has a price. It does invade personal privacy.
This concern has only grown as sophisticated video and network technologies like 4G LTE— which is increasingly the technology of choice for massively deployed machine-to-machine (M2M) monitoring solutions— enable video can be not just automatically captured but also quickly analyzed to, for example, use facial recognition to ID a person or check a license plate against records in a database.
In a recent article in Alcatel-Lucent’s LifeTalk e-zine, “Video Surveillance: Balancing Security and Privacy, Capability and Cost,” author Andreas Olligschlaeger, Ph.D., President, TruNorth Data Systems notes that, “Privacy advocates complain these systems can be used to track the comings and goings of citizens with no connection to crime, and have concerns about how this data will be used.” He goes on to say that, “Privacy is less of a concern in Europe, where surveillance systems have been in use longer and personal privacy is constitutionally guaranteed.”
The facts are that video surveillance can and should play a part in public safety. It is proven to be a valuable tool that helps law enforcement officials do their jobs more effectively. That said, public safety officials also like to say it is only a part of a holistic approach and it cannot replace human judgment, and is obviously most effective when paired with human monitoring and decision-making.
“Video monitoring probably doesn’t do much to prevent crime, although it can be helpful in investigating, solving and prosecuting crimes…Key to this issue is the need to have human monitors watching the video output,” Olligschlaeger says.
Even the most sophisticated license plate or facial recognition system isn’t designed to sound an alarm if a criminal snatches someone’s purse or hits someone over the head with a beer bottle.
However, video surveillance systems—which take the closed circuit TV (CCTV) concept to a new level—are becoming more popular in the U.S. and in developing countries alike, in part because of lower cost made possible by wireless broadband growth. It’s easier than ever to balance capabilities with cost.
“Wireless networks eliminate the need to run coaxial cable to camera installations, and the smaller cameras reduce power requirements,” notes Olligschlaeger. “Now, a camera and transmitter can run for days or weeks on a battery, and may be able to recharge via a solar collector.”
Such video surveillance systems enable users to set up monitoring on demand, a feature made popular by social media trends like flash mobs. Flash mobs can be entertaining for a global audience if streamed live or published afterward on the web (which they often are, using smartphones and social media networks) but can also cause problems.
“Flash mobs can have a dark side, too,” Olligschlaeger points out. “One flash mob raided a convenience store in Maryland, with thieves running inside to steal merchandise off of the shelves, protected by the anonymity of the crowd. Another flash mob attacked people leaving the Wisconsin State Fair, knocking people to the ground and stealing personal belongings.”
It’s clear that video surveillance is here to stay, and has its place in the arena of public safety. However, it is also clear that striking the right balance as to how much security, when \, where why and how has been and increasingly will be a challenge for the officials charged with keeping us safe.
]]>Sustaining a successful public transportation system, such as train service, depends on that system being both convenient and safe. For train passengers, especially women, safety (both actual and perceived) can be a major issue.
In a recent article in TRACKTALK, “What puts women off using the train?” Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Associate Dean at University of California Los Angeles’ School of Public Affairs and Urban Planning, shined a light on the critical role video surveillance and passenger information systems (PIS) can play in helping female travelers feel safe. As she noted, “Dark and deserted stations and trains are understandably off-putting and can encourage people to seek alternative means of transport, or even not travel at all, to avoid feeling threatened, or in some instances becoming a victim of crime.”
For the uninitiated, PIS are electronic information systems that provide real-time information about estimated arrival and departure times, as well as brief descriptions regarding the causes of disruptions. PIS not only can be strategically located at transportation hubs but their information can be accessed remotely via a web browser or mobile device. As the author says, video surveillance solutions like those developed by Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), using a new Critical WAN Infrastructure solution based on IP/MPLS, go hand-in-hand with PIS as tools that, when combined with human staffing, can address the most pressing aspects of safety for all train passengers.
Loukaitou-Sideris researched this topic in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada, and found that women train passengers are most concerned about their personal safety in several types of situations:
“Darkness, isolation, and limited opportunities for surveillance were all identified as the major reason that anxiety might increase among passengers, particularly women,” the author said. However, she found that unfortunately there is a gap between security measures that women feel are appropriate, and security measures operators generally choose to provide.
Transport authorities, Loukaitou-Sideris found, tend to prefer installing technology like closed-circuit TV (CCTV) video surveillance rather than adding more security staff, because it costs less. Video surveillance, of course, is only effective at actually stopping crimes if security staff is watching the feed and responds promptly when there are issues. “Technological solutions that are currently available and widely used such as communication points, and emergency buttons are viewed as a positive means of drawing attention,” stated Loukaitou-Sideris. She added, “However, concerns though remain about where exactly the operator at the other end of the line might be, and how quickly they will be able to respond.”
While the most fear-inducing possibility is a violent crime like rape or other physical assault, instances of intimidation, verbal assault and groping are much more common yet hard to prove, and thus tend to haunt female passengers. Women, Loukaitou-Sideris says, feel that if there were more security staff around, these “lesser” crimes would occur less often.
That said, if used appropriately, video surveillance and other technology can and does make passenger safer. For example, accurate information about train arrival and departure times—displayed on screens at the platform, or delivered through other means like on-board communications—helps passengers minimize the time they spend waiting at an unstaffed station.
Where Alcatel-Lucent’s Critical WAN Infrastructure Solution serves a vital function is to automate and simplify operations management. As TRACKTALK highlights, as a result of the increased desire by transit authorities around the world to protect not just passengers but critical physical assets that might be targeted by terrorists, there has been an increasingly holistic approach to railroad security. This is driving the need for interconnected surveillance and alerting. In this regard, several perspectives — social, economic, customer and transit system operations — must be taken into account.
It may sound a bit obvious but this approach must rely on a networking environment that is always on, always available, and can provide a level of granularity that enable authorities to accurately identify trouble spots and people and react quickly. In short, there can be no alternative to being on constant watch and having trained professionals ready to react to any contingency.
Finally, Loukaitou-Sideris states that security must be balanced with efficiency. After all, the goal is to get people to use the system. The implementation of cumbersome and time-consuming security practices, especially for mass transit systems in urban hubs, could dissuade not just women but all potential customers from riding the train. She found that, “Anything that delays the transport process makes public transport less attractive compared with automobiles…Airline passengers are able to tolerate more delays, but it is not the same for rail passengers who would not wait for hours to go through security. In busy cities where thousands of people are flowing through stations this is impractical anyway.”
While we live in an increasingly dangerous world, having a high-performance communications network that can support all aspects of rail security (in stations as well as throughout the physical transit network) is no longer being viewed as a luxury, but as a necessity. Finding the optimal balance to assure safe journeys with minor inconvenience is a complicated task which is why transit authorities are working closely with communications solutions providers to achieve that balance.
By Susan Campbell
Service provider (SP) revenues are taking significant revenue hits from application and content providers (ACPs) as the disaggregation of content from physical access shifts value generation opportunities toward third parties. At the same time SPs are also attempting to ward off “free” offerings, such as people using things like Skype for making phone calls who are willing to put up with inferior quality, by attracting people to superior services they will pay a premium for. The challenge, which every day gains more urgency, is how to react to both trends.
The objective is to be relevant and central in evolving ecosystems and thereby be in a position to maximize new opportunities while minimizing risks. The vehicle for turning things around is embodied in the desirability of creating a new conversation experience with customers based on a holistic strategic approach.
A recent Alcatel-Lucent article, The Value of the New Conversation Experience highlighted the need for service providers to increase the average revenue per user and reduce churn, two of the major revenue corrosive issues. It focused on the reality that to accomplish these goals, SPs must quickly bring to market enhanced service bundles and also rapidly introduce innovative service offerings with compelling and differentiated perceivable value as critical to combating free services.
According to research and business models provided by Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), establishing a new conversation experience offers SPs the means to create sustained business value. It cautions that the value has to be communicated correctly to users and made attractive to all members of evolving ecosystems as well.
ALU’ research reveals that service providers willing to leverage things like IMS technology can capture and keep the attention of their customers through by enabling a more intimate relationship that is experienced as being personal, seamless, secure and social. However, a rich communication suite is not enough.
The research found that users want something with the attributes of ALU’s new conversation experience if they are to remain loyal which in turn can provide service providers with a broad and long term business value.
To truly deliver this new conversation experience, it’s critical that service providers understand what is required. For instance, the article says that customers want such things as:
The key to all of the above and many more is that each of these services can deliver only short-term business value when delivered alone. Worse, they can be easily commoditized. When the services are bundled together, however, they are the foundation for the delivery of the new conversation experience.
To position service providers to generate new and sustainable revenue streams, ALU contends that the focus needs to be on creating integrated communications solutions, combining services and delivering enhanced bundles. This may include a Multimedia Pack to extend enriched voice, intuitive messaging and live video and access to enhanced bundles to deliver on the new conversation experience.
The key for the service provider is to develop the right offering and the right strategy for taking the offering to market. They must then employ sophisticated business modeling techniques so they can react quickly to maximize opportunity and minimize risks in a rapidly changing world.
ALU contends that the new conversation experience is the best way for service providers to create long-term differentiated and sustainable value and that now is the time to start the conversation before as they say, “the window of opportunity is closes.”
As with so many aspects of modern life, the Internet has profoundly changed the nature of relationships between buyers and sellers. Choice and not dictates are the rule and not the exception, and the customers because of access to information and alternatives now have historically unprecedented leverage. They are willing to talk but under new terms and conditions which are going to require new approaches to engagement both short and long term. It is as stated, a new conversation experience. It certainly appears to be a conversation worth getting started.
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