Video intelligence broadens with actionable intelligence from social media and other data

For more than a decade, Verint Systems, Melville, New York, has been developing and redefining the phrase the company pioneered: actionable intelligence. Today, its real-world specifications provide an in-depth analysis of video and integrated physical security data, deepening the gathering of intelligence and lessening risk at the protected premises.

The entire realm of situational awareness continues to transition as intelligence is gleaned from new points, with this trend only magnifying with the internet of Things (loT) and billions of connected devices predicted by 2020.

SourceSecurity.com interviewed Verint’s Kevin Wine, Vice President of Marketing, Video and Situation Intelligence Solutions, for his take on how situational awareness and video technology are evolving.

SourceSecurity.com: What’s the current state of ‘actionable intelligence’ in the video surveillance industry? How is it being leveraged in new platforms such as social media?

Kevin Wine: In today’s data-rich environment, organisations seek out methods to help transform raw data into valuable insight that propels more informed, efficient and intelligent decision-making. By finding ways to process and analyse data, security leaders can make sense of a variety of intelligence to help detect risks early and to respond to situations quickly. This actionable intelligence empowers decision-makers to take action in real-time, which helps increase efficiency and enhance safety.

It is important to note that the concept of Actionable Intelligence reaches far beyond the world of video surveillance. The process involves capturing, processing, analysing and visualising data from various sources — this can include surveillance cameras, risk management software, geo-spatial analysis, social media channels and connected devices — to deliver correlated, centralised data that can be used in a meaningful way. Applications vary widely — information can be used to help facilitate informed response to a security incident, maintain traffic flows during a high-profile event in a metropolitan area or even help a manufacturer determine how to best market a product to its target customer. Overall, Actionable Intelligence enables users to understand what has happened while identifying trends that drive more proactive strategies and processes.

It is interesting to note that social media, cyber security and crowdsourcing have become critical parts of building Actionable Intelligence. We can now leverage technology to monitor activity across the public domain, searching Google, Facebook, and Twitter, for example, for specific keywords and geographic activity. If someone is talking about committing a crime in any public medium, the activity can potentially be detected before an incident takes place. This kind of proactive intelligence is incredibly valuable for law enforcement teams, first responders and security leaders.

In today’s data-rich environment, organisations seek out methods to help transform raw data into valuable insight

SourceSecurity.com: What’s the background on how Verint first coined the phrase ‘Actionable Intelligence?’

Wine: The idea of Actionable Intelligence is what Verint is built on. Our Founder and CEO Dan Bodner believes that Actionable Intelligence enables organisations to recognise crucial insights that empower decision makers to anticipate, respond and take action, and this concept is necessary to realising successful operations in today’s data-driven business environment. Today more than ever, organisations of all types and sizes are aware of the value they can create by using insights gleaned from large data sets. The amount and types of structured and unstructured data is growing rapidly, and presents new and increasing challenges and complexities. Organisations that generate actionable intelligence from big data are better positioned to create value and achieve their strategic objectives.

SourceSecurity.com: What can we expect to see in the future in the video intelligence category and with outside influences such as loT, social media and continued integration of technologies?

Wine: The dramatic increase in consumer and business use of social networks, mobile devices and new digital technologies drives the demand for intelligence that helps enable the development of safer environments, more advanced risk mitigation strategies and stronger collaboration.

Today, citizens play a vital role in the safety of their own communities. Citizens have the ability to act as intelligence gatherers by being “the eyes on the street,” and help alert authorities of daily hazards, crime, vandalism and other significant risks or events that may take place. Private citizens help aid in investigations by providing digital evidence to authorities in the way of smartphone video capture and social media engagement to name a few. By enabling the public to easily report on situations, cities, campuses and public transportation realise improved safety levels through the correlation and sharing of information. This same information sharing helps law enforcement officials gain valuable information to create a comprehensive representation of an incident.

As we look at the video surveillance and security intelligence market, video analytics are becoming more advanced and more reliable. Historically, video analytics systems have been difficult to deploy, operate and manage, often delivering a high rate of false positives. Platforms that streamline proactive video monitoring and allow users to realise increased efficiencies by making it easier and faster to monitor, identify and take action on suspicious activities are going to be of significant value in the near term.

We continue to see technology evolve and a trend toward more sophisticated Big Data analytics, smart devices and the Internet of Things. These drivers, along with an increased focus on business processes, allow today’s leaders to achieve higher levels of situational awareness while removing the complication and complexity of data mining. The result is a framework for operational transformation to help improve resilience, address risk and ensure business continuity.