Applications for thermal CCTV cameras don’t come up all that often. Firstly, because they can be very expensive – costing in excess of $10,000. Also, because the applications for them are not fully understood or appreciated.

If we take a broad look Terrorism and Australian businessesat the trends that have shaped Australia, many will have originated from overseas. This can apply to nearly every facet of our daily lives – from how and where we shop, to the music we listen to and the clothes we wear. Even many of our manufacturing and business processes have been influenced by overseas trends.

So it is only reasonable to assume that from a crime perspective, we can anticipate what topics and issues will be visiting our shores by looking abroad.

Right now, it’s terrorism.

In manman-talking-on-smartphoney businesses, as much effort is put into securing sensitive information as it is into keeping our people and property safe and secure.

Keeping our data protected is of critical importance for any number of reasons.

Drones are a hot topic and mostly for positive reasons.

Up until now, theDrones use of Drones have been associated with outdoor activities such as mountain biking, snowboarding or many forms of aerial photography.

As we understand the versatility of these inexpensive flying cameras, we also learn what impact they can have on the security industry.

If we have Security strategylearnt anything over the last few years, it is that the local landscape is changing in relation to the risks and threats to our businesses.

Keeping our people safe and our properties secure has never been more complex or challenging.

In the last newsletter, we spoke of how facial recognition technologies have evolved and how they are being applied with good results in the commercial world.
Specifically, we spoke of their use in major shopping centres and how they can be adopted to track and monitor peoples activities.

Facial recognition can be used in a whole range of non-security applications.

You may have heard the phrase “Internet of Things” or IoT over the last few months and wondered what it isMobile-Duress-Device all about.

IoT allows electronic devices of nearly any nature to communicate between each other seamlessly using mobile telephone networks.

I have been advising on the use of CCTV for over 20 years and have seen the very best and very worst of CCTV over this time.

My view is that until you have a clear understanding of what CCTV can achieve in your environment, you should delay any buying decisions.

During an interview on 2GB recently, I was asked what security measures should be implemented in shopping centres following the Westfield terrorist threat.

It is a difficult question to answer because to properly advise Westfield or any other organisation about counter-terrorism specific security practices, you first need to qualify the level of risk.

Facial Recognition is a technology that has been over promoted for many years. Much of the attention has come from Hollywood where it has magically solved all manner of crimes on television and in the movies.

In recent years, it has been implemented in commercial applications with good levels of success.