Unlock the Potential of Existing Physical Security Systems
Advancements in physical security software have come a long way. Over the last decade, systems have evolved to deliver new intuitive functionalities to help security teams automate processes, speed up investigations, and stay on top of routine maintenance tasks.
Unfortunately, many security teams still only use between 5-20% of their physical security systems’ capabilities.
Finding time to learn all the ins and outs of a system’s potential can be tough. While your team might be excited to learn about new features, taking advantage of different tools often takes a backseat to daily security tasks. And your security operators might even be reluctant to change.
Here’s the message that hasn’t gotten across – little changes can go a long way.
In this blog, we’re sharing some core functionalities and new ways of working within Genetec Security Center that you can implement right now, to enhance your operations.
Simple Ways to Boost Your Monitoring Tasks
Being efficient when managing cameras and events can make all the difference in your organizational security. While your team knows your environment best, there could be easier ways for them to handle their monitoring tasks. Here are some examples below:
Visual tracking and Maps Vs Memorizing Camera Numbers
When your team gets an alert or spots something suspicious, are they still using hotkeys or scrolling through camera tree lists to pull up video feeds? While having camera and door codes memorized might seem simple right now, relying on memory during an emergency can be risky and can slow response. They might not be able to pull up video feeds fast enough to visually follow someone that’s moving through your property.
Visual Tracking and Plan Manager can help them stay on target. Working from our map-based interface, Plan Manager, provides your team with complete situational awareness. Quickly find cameras and doors, and acknowledge alarms using the layout view of your property. This makes it easier to spot exactly where things are happening, and which cameras get the best point of view.
Visual Tracking allows you to open graphical overlays within the video tile to jump to an adjacent camera. This helps your team instantly switch from camera to camera without taking their eyes off suspects as they coordinate responses with others.
Honoring Privacy Without Sacrificing Security
Whether in schools, hospital environments, or in public-facing areas where privacy expectations are high, it’s important to find ways to balance your security needs with privacy in mind. Today, laws in various jurisdictions require a more considerate approach to balancing people’s right to privacy and security, and penalties for not following through are strict.
Using KiwiVision™ Privacy Protector, you can protect everyone’s privacy without compromising security. This built-in privacy feature lets you anonymize areas and people moving in the foreground of live and recorded video. That means while your operators can see the background context in a video tile, they won’t be able to identify people in the field of view. If an investigation requires removing the anonymous view, only those with the appropriate privileges will be able to see the original, unmasked media.
Easy Solutions to Speed Up Your Investigations
Without the right tools, finding evidence and sharing it with the necessary parties can drain resources. Today, new solutions exist to ease the burden on your team’s time and your budget. Below are some examples:
Quick Search Vs Scrolling Through Archives
When conducting an investigation, many users still pull a report to retrieve archived footage from a camera. Then they scrub hours of video, trying to find the information they need to move the case forward.
The Quick Search tool helps you target your video search to find evidence faster. Within the camera’s field of view, you can identify the area of interest. The system will then present thumbnails from equally spaced out times throughout the period in question.
From there, further expand the selection between the thumbnails to see a set of images within that period, honing in on the exact moment where the incident occurred in a couple of clicks. Users can access the Quick Search tool by clicking the briefcase icon on the side panel of the monitoring task in Security Center.
Genetec Clearance Vs Other Ways of Sharing Evidence
Whether you’re investigating 20 cases a day or 3 per month, significant time needs to be spent preparing case files and sharing them with authorities and relevant parties. Extracting evidence and uploading it to physical media storage devices or other platforms not only takes time, but it eats into your budget. There’s also the question of controlling who can access the information. Sensitive information or video found on USBs can easily be misplaced or lost, and end up in the wrong hands, disrupting the chain of custody and admissibility in court.
Genetec Clearance™ simplifies your evidence management processes. From Security Center, you can easily upload video into a new or existing case file. External reports and information can be uploaded into Clearance to quickly and securely share evidence via email, grant access rights to specific individuals, and track the chain of custody at every step. You can also assign relevant keywords to each case, making it easier to find evidence and filter through case files later on.
New Features to Help Automate Your Maintenance
With cybersecurity concerns at an all-time high, old ways of handling maintenance tasks just won’t cut it. Several new features are available to help you stay on top of maintenance tasks, and keep your cyber resilience strong. Here are some examples:
Camera Integrity Monitor Vs Learning About Tampering After It’s Too Late
Finding out that cameras have been tampered with after the fact is an all-too-common scenario. It’s often only when you go looking for video related to a reported incident that you discover a camera failure. But when your system has over 100 cameras, your team can’t spend every waking hour checking if cameras are functioning as they should.
Not knowing leaves gaps in your security, which can lead to unresolved investigations and potential liability.
KiwiVision Camera Integrity Monitor alerts you when the footage captured by a camera differs from its reference image. This lets you quickly identify potential tampering, vandalism, and units requiring maintenance. Using an intuitive dashboard, you can review events to see the reference image, the footage that triggered the event, and the current image side by side. This gives you all the information needed to address the situation.
Password Manager Vs Manually Changing Device Passwords
Using default device passwords is one of the most common cybersecurity vulnerabilities for organizations. These passwords are often leaked and used by threat actors to gain access to your system and network. To prevent this, your team needs to change default passwords often using robust combinations. Updating passwords regularly isn’t always a top priority, and handling this task manually takes time that your team may not have.
Password Manager automatically generates strong, randomized passwords for your devices, made to comply with the unique password requirements for supported vendors. You can also plan to have all your device passwords automatically updated on a set schedule, or in batches – so you never have to worry about having weak passwords, again.
Bonus: Using the Firmware Vault, you’ll also be alerted to new device firmware, and given the option to download and distribute those updates within a few clicks. Both the Password Manager and Firmware Vault are available when you opt-in to the Genetec Update Service (GUS). Want to learn more about GUS? Check out this blog.
4 Tips On How to Keep Evolving Your Physical Security Operations
We’ve said it earlier and we’ll say it again – little changes can go a long way. Getting more out of your physical security system can involve checking off a big-ticket item on your roadmap, but it doesn’t always have to be that taxing.
Planning smaller, shorter-term upgrades and learning how to use new built-in features which are available at no extra cost can significantly impact your operations over time.
So, here are a few tips to keep the momentum going to get more from your physical security investments:
#1 Build a roadmap with short-term upgrades
Most customers have roadmaps. But too often those roadmaps don’t factor in the smaller upgrades. Take time to pinpoint some shorter-term goals and encourage your team to explore new features and share their ideas. Sometimes, the best place to start is by asking the people who use your system day-in, day-out.
#2 Make sure you have the latest software version
If you’re running an older version of Security Center, chances are you’re missing out on a ton of new features that might benefit your team. When new versions come out, scan the features list to see if an upgrade could be worthwhile. You can also opt in to GUS, which will automatically alert you to new updates when they’re available and simplify the download process. Watch this video to see how GUS operates.
#3 Work With Your Trusted Partners
When you get a new security system, sometimes there’s only enough time in the day to maintain what you’re already doing. So why not rely on people who have expert knowledge about the system’s latest capabilities? A conversation with your channel partner and our Genetec Professional Services team might open a world of new, easily achievable ideas that enhance your operations.
#4 Encourage self-paced learning
Scheduling full-day training isn’t the only way to learn about new system features and capabilities. From watching our YouTube videos to reading blogs like these, you gather new ideas about how to enhance your system. You can also participate in online product training sessions, and take classes at your own pace to become a master at using our solutions.
Call us on 1300 556 334 or email [email protected] to learn more.
Customers in New Zealand call 0800 345 677 or email [email protected].
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