Council considering reducing number of allowable false alarms, adopting fee system
Read more »How to Cut Costs Using the Internet : Recession Review
The recession is forcing broad reductions. Worse, the era of excess consumer spending is over. In response, most business around the world, whether they buy or sell video surveillance, will have to tighten their belts. Even if your company was growing quickly and is still g... More
Read more »Surveillanve Video Helps Solve 70% of UK Murders : Video Surveillance Article
From Scotland Yard Study, declares surveillance video as vital as DNA samples or fingerprints More
Read more »How to Reduce Flourescent Flicker in Surveillance Video : Pixim Article
Technical article that examines the causes, provides visual examples and discusses Pixim's solution More
Read more »New California law prohibits skimming
An anti-skimming law went into effect in California Jan. 1. According to the Consumer Federation of California, SB 31 by Sen. Joe Simitian prohibits the reading of a contactless ID card without the individual’s knowledge and consent. The law covers cards issued by government agencies, health insurance companies, schools and others.
The federation claims that unauthorized readers can “surreptitiously read and skim the personal information stored on a device—such as a birth date, digital picture, or unique identifier number—all without the knowledge of the RFID holder … which can be used to facilitate identity theft or to stalk and track the whereabouts of an individual.”
Read more here. The bill was signed into law in October at the same time that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed another Simitian measure that would have placed restrictions on RFID-enabled cards.
Read more »New California law prohibits skimming
An anti-skimming law went into effect in California Jan. 1. According to the Consumer Federation of California, SB 31 by Sen. Joe Simitian prohibits the reading of a contactless ID card without the individual’s knowledge and consent. The law covers cards issued by government agencies, health insurance companies, schools and others.
The federation claims that unauthorized readers can “surreptitiously read and skim the personal information stored on a device—such as a birth date, digital picture, or unique identifier number—all without the knowledge of the RFID holder … which can be used to facilitate identity theft or to stalk and track the whereabouts of an individual.”
Read more here. The bill was signed into law in October at the same time that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed another Simitian measure that would have placed restrictions on RFID-enabled cards.
Read more »ACS opens Tokyo office, appoints GM
Advanced Card Systems Ltd., a supplier of PC-linked smart card readers, announced the opening of its new sales and support office in Tokyo, Japan and the appointment of Hiroyuki Shimada as general manager of Advanced Card Systems (Japan).
Shimada will coordinate all sales and marketing activities across ACS Japan and further assist in developing the company’s Japan sales strategy.
Read more »How Bad was the 4th Quarter? : Recession Review
As an industry, bad. In Oct-Dec, sales decelerated in IP video and turned negative in analog video. The main reason: "project delays." While the growth rate of IP video segment is still positive, growth has decelerated across the entire industry.
This report is for... More
Read more »Peoplesafe lone worker protection service now with Man-Down protection and GPS
Rocksure Systems has introduced two new versions of its Peoplesafe lone worker protection service. Peoplesafe with Man-Down protection is able to detect whether the wearer is incapacitated after a fall or injury whilst its new GPS option is able to pinpoint a worker's location to within a few metres.
Peoplesafe with Man-Down provides all the proven benefits of the existing Peoplesafe service, p ...[more]
Read more »Ohio students told their private information was on Internet
About 18,000 current and former students at Ohio State University have discovered that their names and Social Security numbers were inadvertently posted to a server that was accessible via the Internet. While no abuses have been reported, the school has offered those affected 12 months of free credit protection.
Officials said the information was provided to a contractor to print student health ID cards and was never intended to be placed on an Internet-accessible server. Only students enrolled in the school’s insurance program from fall 2005 to summer 2006 are affected. Read more here.
Read more »Weakness In Internet Security Uncovered
Independent security researchers have found a weakness in the Internet digital certificate infrastructure that allows attackers to forge certificates that are fully trusted by all commonly used web browsers.
Read more »Revenue Rankings of Top 50 Security Companies Released : General Article
ASMAG releases its rankings - Honeywell, ADT, Bosch Top 3 Globally, Axis 11th place, Vivotek 41st More
Read more »How Much More Area Can a Wider Lens Cover? : Theia Page
Theia compares ultra wide angle lens to typical lenses providing images, charts and supporting analysis; demonstrates differences and benefits of ultra wide angle lenses for megapixel cameras More
Read more »Smart chip integration, new standards on tap for 2009
By Patrick Hearn, Oberthur Technologies
With the change in administration in 2009 it’s likely there won’t be much activity with smart cards in the federal government. Existing projects will continue forward but new ones will most likely be stalled for at least a year.
But that doesn’t mean the industry will be standing still waiting for the Obama administration. Integration of smart chip technology into other form factors is an area where Oberthur Technologies sees a lot of activity.
Near Field Communication will take off for payments but will also start being adopted for physical access control applications. This will enable smart chips to have greater ubiquity and additional form factors and applications emerge.
Oberthur Technologies is also working on a new smart card edge that could enable easier interoperability of smart card credentials. GICS is a data scheme that takes different smart card program standards, such as registered traveler, corporate programs and FIPS 201, and create improved performance and interoperability with less middleware.
The B10 INCITS Task Group is working on the standard along with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and industry players such as Microsoft Corp.
Read more »Top News: Atlanta suburb to begin enforcement of new stringent alarm law
Cobb County to impose fines for false alarms, non-registration of alarm systems
Read more »Taiwan begins issuing e-passports
Taiwan has begun issuing Republic of China electronic passports, making it the 60th country to produce the secure passports. The new passports comply with the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization. However, the country’s current machine readable passports can still be used until they expire.
The new passport contains a contactless chip and antenna embedded in its back cover, with the bearer’s biographical data and facial image stored on the chip. Read more here.
Read more »Barclays fights phishing with smart bank cards, readers
London-based Barclays Bank has turned to a smart card solution from Gemalto to protect its customers who use the bank’s online services. They are provided a one-time access number for each online transaction. The number is generated by the chip on the customer’s bank card and displayed on the card reader, known as PINsentry. Once a customer enters his permanent PIN, the system generates the password that serves as a digital signature.
According to one bank official, phishing attacks have “decreased dramatically” since the smart card readers were deployed even while such attacks have reached an all-time high for the UK banking industry.
Barclays first started using the U.S. $9 readers in 2007 for about 800,000 customers who made payments online. But then other customers began requesting them and now more than two million are in use. Read more here.
Read more »Top News: UK's Cooper Security lays off workers
Up to 45 to go jobless from UK alarm products firm
Read more »UTA taps into high-tech fare collection
The Utah Transit Authority Jan. 1 will officially launch its new fare collection system that includes contactless credit cards. In addition, the new readers installed on its 520 buses and at 35 rail platforms will also accept prepaid cards, such as student ID cards and UTA’s own electronic passes.
Passengers with the credit cards, student IDs and electronic passes “tap on” and “tap off” when boarding and exiting UTA’s vehicles. Tapping when they exit opens a two-hour transfer window, which means they can board another service and tap on without getting charged again, said one UTA official. Read more here.
Read more »UTA taps into high-tech fare collection
The Utah Transit Authority Jan. 1 will officially launch its new fare collection system that includes contactless credit cards. In addition, the new readers installed on its 520 buses and at 35 rail platforms will also accept prepaid cards, such as student ID cards and UTA’s own electronic passes.
Passengers with the credit cards, student IDs and electronic passes “tap on” and “tap off” when boarding and exiting UTA’s vehicles. Tapping when they exit opens a two-hour transfer window, which means they can board another service and tap on without getting charged again, said one UTA official. Read more here.
Read more »