Rail security

from Rail Professional September 2021 Issue 275

Rail Professional Interview

Rail security Steve Green

The answer is unification

Steve Green, Regional Manager UK at Genetec explores unification and how can it help rail operators who are already faced with numerous challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic

The rail industry in the UK is ripe for revitalisation. That’s because many rail operators are learning how old, siloed ways of working have held them back for too long, particularly in the physical security realm. Technologies such as video surveillance, access control and intruder prevention have typically been deployed on a standalone basis according to a specific organisation or even department’s immediate needs. Because of this, stations, service facilities, operation headquarters – and vehicles – now find themselves with a range of different, disconnected physical security products that fail to present a single picture of what is happening on the network.

Now, as older security technologies are becoming obsolete, there’s an opportunity to re-strategize. The focus is now shifting towards increased collaboration and how to best deploy and manage physical security across the entire rail ecosystem. And there is a new conversation starting to emerge – one that centres around unification.

Unification Unification is a buzzword you hear more and more often in the security industry and means something beyond integration. In this case, a unified physical security platform is a comprehensive software solution that manages the different components of a security environment through a centralised open architecture built to provide complete access to all data. A unified platform goes above and beyond tagging or bookmarking video when an access control event occurs or offering the capability to unlock an accesscontrolled door from within the video surveillance user interface. It’s a platform that combines information from all available sensors to provide greater awareness to operators. This not only means showing video feeds when alerts are triggered by the access control system, but also being able to see data from all related sensors in a single click, from anywhere in the system.

Unification for actionable insights Rail operators have a vested interest in increasing the number of sensors they use, to get as much data as possible about their facilities and vehicles. But this is only effective if the data can then be made meaningful and turned into useful information.

This is where unification comes into play, as it allows all the data collected to be visualised in one place, regardless of the combination of sensors from which it originates. Thus, public transport companies can gain a single version of the truth and have a real overview of the network in real time.

This can enable operators to make more intelligent business decisions and ultimately enhance passenger safety and satisfaction. It can enable operators to monitor the number of passengers on board or within a station to deduce real and projected occupancy rates and follow train journeys to communicate precise arrival/ departure times. A unified system is not limited to GPS or video analytics data either. It can go far beyond that, including video surveillance, access control, automatic license plate reading, telematics, communications, etc., allowing not only for better user information, but also for improved quality, efficiency, and safety of operations.

Unification to improve internal and external collaboration Rail operations have traditionally been heavily siloed making collaboration between different department and functions difficult. The outcome? Disjointed communication, slower processes, and overstretched budgets. That is why organisations are turning to a unified approach. Pooling budgets, requirements and expertise avoids unnecessary overlap and allows for the provision of a more comprehensive system than each department could hope to procure on their own.

Moreover, such an approach simplifies the secure sharing of realtime information with validated third parties: i.e. law enforcement

agencies in solving their investigations, first responders in their response to emergencies etc.

Here, it is essential that privacy remains a top priority. There are ways to ensure the privacy of individuals recorded by your video surveillance system while safeguarding potential legal evidence. For instance, dynamically anonymising individuals in the camera’s field of view without obscuring actions and movements. By using permissions, you can easily control which operator can review the original footage. Moreover, the original clip can also be encrypted using security certificates to prevent unauthorised access.

Unification to enhance cybersecurity Physical security tools are vulnerable to cyber-attacks when relying on a variety of integrations between distinct systems. A unified physical security platform consists of a suite of products developed as one unit. It means you can turn different systems – video, access control, intercoms, intercoms etc. – on or off, but you can’t break connections because there aren’t any. In contrast, an integrated physical security system is the result of combining one thing with another. It is built on connections and if one of them breaks it can impact all the others. Routine upgrades can quickly wreak havoc and create headaches for administrators and end users.

While there is nothing organisations can do to make themselves completely impervious to a breach, every effort must still be made to reduce susceptibilities. One way to limit an organisation’s cyber vulnerabilities is to carefully select partners for both hardware and software, ensuring that they follow cybersecurity best practices. Trusted partners will have built cybersecurity into the design of their solutions, with multiple layers of protection such as encryption, authentication and authorisation.

Unification brings together all security system components seamlessly in a single software platform with one user interface in a way that can vastly improve physical security management. Unification can also open a new world of collecting and using actionable business intelligence that can greatly enhance business operations. Rail operators are demanding simplicity and greater functionality. Why not offer them both?

Steve Green is Regional Manager UK at Genetec

One way to limit an organisation’s cyber vulnerabilities is to carefully select partners for both hardware and software, ensuring that they follow cybersecurity best practices.