SourceSecurity.com RSS - Words of Wiseberg

Firefighters under attack

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:00:00 GMT

It seems beyond belief in a so-called "civilised society" that anyone would want to attack firefighters who are placing their lives at risk to ensure the safety of others. Sadly, time and again when responding to emergency calls, crews are threatened with physical assault, assailed by bricks, bottles and golf balls, and even have to contend with youths recording their anarchic exploits on mobile phones.

The seriousness of the situation was underlined last summer in...

Campus safety and security

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:00:00 GMT

When it comes to maximising the safety and security of today's colleges and universities, there are undoubtedly tremendous challenges for surveillance systems in terms of securing such large-scale and diverse campus environments, with multiple buildings often situated in fast moving urban areas.

In specifying the right CCTV infrastructure, considerations which need to be taken into account include: student and public safety on campus against the threat of robbery and physical...

Securing water supplies

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:00:00 GMT

The simplicity of turning on a tap in the morning, to fill a kettle or run a bath, means that it is very easy for us to take the Herculean effort which goes on behind the scenes in the water industry very much for granted. In the UK, for example, the infrastructure which keeps water flowing 24 hours a day is based on an extensive network of water mains, over 1,000 reservoirs and 2,500 treatment plants, all of which have to be effectively managed and maintained.

While much of...

Video analytics for warehouse fire safety

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:00:00 GMT

When it comes to fire safety in today's large-scale warehouse environments - which can cover thousands of square metres - undoubtedly an essential requirement is the ability to identify that there is a problem at the earliest possible stage so swift action can be taken to bring a fire under control.

This has become even more of an imperative in recent times given the high value of materials which are stored in these buildings and the need to move workers to safety in what can, in...

Heavy metal mania

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 08:00:00 GMT

We are seeing a considerable escalation in metal theft driven by an insatiable appetite for all things metal from the fast expanding Chinese and Indian economies. Nowhere seems to be immune from attack, even churches are not a safe haven as thieves target their roofs, with Ecclesiastical Insurance having dealt with 1,400 claims worth £5 million across the UK. And it does not stop there: on a daily basis there are reports regarding the wholesale removal of road signs,...

New solutions, new challenges

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 08:00:00 GMT

The capability of CCTV systems has changed dramatically in recent years with the move from analogue to digital allowing more powerful and flexible systems to be rolled out for commercial and public space surveillance; the ability to record more pictures per second (driven by the development of more powerful video signal processors); cheaper storage; mobile systems on buses and trains; the increasing application of CCTV in a networked environment and new ways to automatically analyse images...

Calling time on alcohol related violence

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 08:00:00 GMT

If you happened to read my recent article referring to my passion for the motorcar, you may be surprised to learn that I ever walk anywhere. However, it is often necessary to put the car keys away and opt for a more environmentally friendly mode of transport to travel the few hundred yards from car to shop, cinema, restaurant or similar establishment.

When walking in our town and city centres on a Friday or Saturday night, it is hard not to be struck by the level of anti-social...

Strange behaviour

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:00:00 GMT

When it comes to remotely monitored CCTV, fact can often be stranger than fiction as the operators at one hardworking RVRC (Remote Video Response Centre) I talked to in the North of England can testify.

One of the most blatant examples, captured by their cameras, concerns a mother and daughter who decided to stage a forecourt ‘incident' at a motor dealership. While waiting for the daughter's car to be fixed an apparently dishevelled mother told garage staff that...

A journey from road to rail

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:00:00 GMT

Whilst it may not be politically correct, particularly as an invisible hand seems to be turning-up the Earth's thermostat to make parts of the UK as warm as the French Riviera, deep down most of us will admit that nothing quite beats the freedom of our own gas guzzling cars. I know that I love the whole driving experience, the man-machine relationship where the car becomes an extension of self. It is that feeling of control in a world where so much else seems out of control...

Acting on air rage

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 08:00:00 GMT

When it comes to safety in the skies while the primary focus must be on the heightened terrorist threat, the same CCTV solutions can also be applied as a powerful tool to deal with a much more common and extremely disruptive problem, namely 'air rage' which can, in the worst cases, lead to physical assault and aircraft having to be diverted.

Most of us on our travels will have come across examples of ill tempered, abusive, intoxicated and out of control passengers, for flight...

Financial security

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 08:00:00 GMT

One of the most challenging areas for security technology has to be providing effective protection for banks and their associated infrastructure, such as cash machines (ATMs), given the fact that they are constantly in the sights of ever more audacious criminal gangs.

The extreme lengths to which the criminal fraternity are prepared to go has been underlined in recent weeks with the discovery by workmen of a large 40 foot tunnel in Manchester, England - including electric lighting -...

CCTV on trial

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 08:00:00 GMT

The evidential value of having an extensive CCTV infrastructure in the UK - both for public space and private surveillance - has been underlined over the past month by the presentation of key footage in a number of major court cases.

Dramatic images released to the media with regards to the £53 million robbery at a cash depot in Kent - thought to be the largest incident of its kind in the UK - show an armed gang carrying out the raid, vital footage which has helped the police...

Student behaviour on the buses

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:00:00 GMT

As the new school year fast approaches the issue for the authorities and operators alike of dangerous student behaviour on buses will once again be centre stage. Disruptive pupils are problematic enough in a classroom environment but on a moving bus some of their antics can be positively life threatening. Typical incidents can range from minor damage to seats and graffiti to in the worst case scenario large-scale fights breaking out near the driver, distracting...

A balanced approach in an uncertain world

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:00:00 GMT

It has been reported that the [London's] Metropolitan Police in the wake of the failed terrorist car bomb attacks in London's West End - which saw suspect vehicles positioned in Haymarket and near Trafalgar Square - are to be allowed access real time images from 1,500 congestion charge cameras. To allow this to happen, Transport for London (TfL) [the transit authority of London] and the Metropolitan Police are being given exemption to parts of the [UK's privacy...

A visible deterrent to anti-social behaviour

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 08:00:00 GMT

A growing concern for authorities across the UK is how to clamp down on underage drinking and general youth nuisance, particularly during the school holidays, when boredom can lead some individuals to drift towards anti-social behaviour and petty crime, which can have a detrimental impact on their lives and that of the whole community.

As a result of an escalation in this type of behaviour we are starting to see multi-agency Safer Neighbourhood Teams turning to high profile CCTV...

Australian growth in remotely monitored CCTV

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:00:00 GMT

It is encouraging to see that remotely monitored, detector-activated, CCTV is really taking-off in other parts of the world. One Australian supplier I spoke to recently, who was visiting the IFSEC exhibition in May, reported an upsurge of interest resulting in a doubling of connections year-on-year - and with 60% of business coming from customer recommendations - this ties in with what I have been saying for over a decade now regarding the real benefits of this technology for...

Talking About CCTV

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 08:00:00 GMT

With all the hype surrounding so-called 'Talking CCTV' now being rolled out as part of public space surveillance in Britain's cities, that allows control centre operators to speak to people picked-up on camera, one would be forgiven for thinking that this was some radical new form of security that had just emerged, particularly as the coverage from the non-specialist broadcast media seems to point inexorably to this conclusion.

The reality however is somewhat different....

Intelligent CCTV for Tunnel Fire Safety

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 08:00:00 GMT

Against the backdrop of a number of major fire related incidents including the Mont Blanc Tunnel in 1999, which claimed the lives of 39 people, a funicular railway tunnel fire in Kaprun, Austria, two years later where 155 sadly died, and in March this year a fatal fire in the Melbourne City Link Tunnel; there has been increasing interest in the application of CCTV cameras in conjunction with video analytics technology, specifically video smoke detection, to provide vital early warning of...

Customer care for CCTV systems

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 08:00:00 GMT

When it comes to the effectiveness of any CCTV surveillance system, however good the technology, the reality is that it is only as strong as its weakest link. With this in mind, it is imperative that end users are encouraged by installers to give sufficient care and attention to the long term operation and maintenance of their CCTV solution. Without such steps being taken it is all too easy for an incident to happen which goes undetected, because of camera misalignment or hard...

CCTV best practice for Chip and PIN

Adam Wiseberg wiseberg@sourcesecurity.com — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 08:00:00 GMT

Few could have failed to notice the publicity surrounding the ambitious chip and PIN initiative to combat credit and debit card fraud in the UK, which came into force on Valentine's Day last year and was a major undertaking by any measure. Although according to the latest figures from APACS (Association of Payment Clearing Services) there was a 3% drop in the amount of money lost to card fraud in 2006 which has to be welcomed - with a marked drop for the use of lost and stolen...