CNI
With a UK threat attack ‘highly likely’, is our national infrastructure at risk? By Lucas Young, Axis Communications, Northern Europe Our critical national infrastructure (CNI) underpins the foundation of our modern existence, yet as most of its operation takes place ‘behind the scenes’, it is often so seamless that we hardly notice it’s there. Energy, water supplies, transportation and even logistics are all essential components of our modern world. Disruption, damage to or sabotage of any one of these sites could be catastrophic, depriving millions of people of access to essential services and, in some cases, causing loss of life. With the UK's terrorism threat level having just been upgraded from substantial (3) to severe (4), it’s crucial that these industries adjust their security posture accordingly and have appropriate technologies in place to support this. Existing security provisions should be thoroughly assessed as the need to adopt high quality security solutions,
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providing continual real time surveillance and security protection, becomes even more imperative. Security measures must consider both the threat and the operating requirements. Typically for CNI this may include large and remote locations. But there will always be environmental constraints and it’s important to ensure that any security provision does not conflict with operations at a site. Consideration must be given to finding a solution that integrates into existing infrastructure, providing high levels of accuracy and allowing for timely incident alert and response. Pitfalls of traditional perimeter protection While no technology is fool-proof, certain technology is more prone to false alarms, referred to as ‘false positives’. This can often result in operational headaches
for security teams when dealing with traditional intrusion detection solutions physically integrated into a perimeter fence. Common causes of false positives include animals, moving plants and trees, and even wind. As it’s not always possible for security staff to quickly and accurately determine the cause of an alarm, a site has to be physically checked. This can waste valuable time and resources, and could result in apathetic or overstretched staff ignoring a genuine threat, which in the case of CNI could be life threatening. Other intrusion detectors, such as infrared and lasers can be positioned on the perimeter, but these too can be affected by false positives and restricted by limited detection capabilities over distance or at height. By contrast, employing the latest generation of network video technologies can reduce
