IP in Action - Security Event

A couple of weeks ago I attended the IP in Action Security event in Coventry, This was a part of my old role on a project to provide designs for a complete end to end security solution for BT (access cards, access readers, Biometrics, IP CCTV, Door Control and ID/Role Management)

I was pleased to see that everyone at the event acknowledged new security projects require as much IT expertise as the do conventional security knowledge. Unfortunately not all suppliers fully grasped the concept of programmatically exposing their devices though xml and web services but there were a number who did.

This is particularly important to BT as it drives towards a SOA (Service Orientated Architecture) . With the use of standards such as BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) and BAM (Business Activity Monitoring) , we are going to see some extremely clever "Enterprise Mash-ups" in the not too distant future.

Video analytics was the buzzword at the event causing the most excitement, that’s the software that automatically sends you a fine if you stop in the wrong part of a junction (yellow box)

Sony gave a particularly impressive demonstration of how they can use analytics to generate meta data about videos, and only notify an operator if there is actually something they need to look at.

http://www.sonybiz.net/biz/view/ShowContent.action?BIZ_SESSIONID=GWVHGG9WkrmNTcJfjppj5JHSpn69td2nCYzcLFLhGKNc6yDxK3qv!-46656936&logicalname=NVM%20DEPA%20Flash&site=biz_en_GB

The event had a focus on local governments/councils. There were a number of companies proposing they could cut costs for local councils by consolidating their CCTV, traffic light, traffic information boards and emergency service networks into one IP WiFi network. Leeds council gave an impressive demonstration of how they have done this and used the same network to provide WiFi access to some of its poorest areas.

Finally I though I would mention one of the more comical ideas from the event, some councils are promoting Bluetooth networks, while there may be many good uses for this technology the example given was rather poor…..

When walking into an area of high crime people receive a message on their mobile informing them that criminal may be operating in the area. On receiving that message most peoples reaction would be to get their phone from their pocket and review the message thus display their lovely new phone to all the criminals. Genius.