Blogs

This week, I’m spending time in the Country Music Capital of the World, Nashville, hanging out with everyone at MIPS 2019, a conference organized by Milestone. After quite an eventful experience at the DFW airport — maintenance issues, delays and arriving a bit late to the conference — I’m happy to report it was all worth it!

Yesterday was jam-packed full of amazing speakers, new announcements from Milestone and their partners, and of course, hand claps and “yee-haws” to celebrate. Today promises even more highly beneficial content and a one-on-one interview to discuss the new Milestone Marketplace, an online experience to explore proven applications, hardware, and services that work with XProtect; connect with technology partners; and find the solution to deploy.

Be on the lookout for my MIPS 2019 roundup piece and follow me on Twitter @SSN_Ginger for live updates. To get caught up on yesterday’s Tweets, search with SSN’s new hashtag #SSNTalks.
 

The love of smart speakers is permeating the world, as more and more people are introducing these devices into their homes for various reasons—to listen to their favorite tunes, search for real-time and factual information, listen to news, chat with the voice assistant for fun (I mean, it’s pretty cool to play trivia with Alexa!), and use alarms and timers, and more. So, to do all these activities, what are people looking for in a smart speaker?

After surveying more than 13 percent of Internet users with smart speakers in their households in November 2018, from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, IHS Markit found:

•    27 percent said the most important feature is “integration with services and devices;
•    25 percent said a “questions and answers” feature; and
•    24 percent indicated “sound quality.”

Of the respondents with access to smart speakers powered by Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, they were more likely to rate integration as the most important feature because they positioned their digital assistants as smart home hubs, primarily because both platforms leverage their own entertainment offerings, such as audiobooks and streaming music.

Fateha Begum, associate director, IHS Markit, revealed the following information from the survey in an announcement:

•    Sound quality and integration is usually equally important among consumers, especially for those with Bose, JBL, Link, Panasonic, Sony and other traditional audio brands.
•    Smart speaker households in India and Brazil selected sound quality as the most important factor.
•    Amazon Echo and Google Home owners said answering questions was top of their list.

Across all markets surveyed, it seems Amazon Echo is making a bigger splash among households. Those owning Amazon Echo devices were more likely to have multiple devices and on average, 21 percent accessed two Echo speakers with 15 percent accessing three or more speakers. Only 15 percent of Google Home owners had access to two Google speakers with an additional 15 percent accessing three or more speakers.

In my opinion, the key takeaway from this survey was stated by Maria Rua Aguete, executive director, IHS Markit, “Operators now understand the importance of having their own digital assistants, to maintain and control the customer experience and network usage.”

As the semi-proud new owner of an Echo Show, 2nd Generation, I enjoy Alexa for the little things—playing games and listening to music, and I appreciate the concept and lure of smart speakers and AI, but for me, and maybe it’s my undeniably strong Texas accent, Alexa just doesn’t understand me! 

For more research on the smart speaker craze, click here.
 

You don’t have to look too hard to find a sobering example of cybercrime, as it's as pervasive as ever these days, even on the national level with recent reports that cyber criminals have access to critical infrastructure such as our national power grids and gas lines. The good news, though, is technology may be our best weapon against these invisible criminals.

In fact, the use of big data and blockchain technologies are key to fighting cybercrime, according to a new study from Frost & Sullivan that looks at how effective machine learning is in aiding early detection of cyber anomalies, and how good blockchain is at creating a trustworthy network between endpoints.

Frost and Sullivan noted that the rise of the Internet of Things has opened up numerous points of vulnerabilities, compelling cybersecurity companies, especially startups, to develop innovative solutions to protect enterprises from emerging threats. As cybercrime becomes more sophisticated and even a method of warfare, the research firm found, technologies such as machine learning, big data, and blockchain will become prominent.

"Deploying Big Data solutions is essential for companies to expand the scope of cybersecurity solutions beyond detection and mitigation of threats,” Hiten Shah, research analyst, TechVision, said in the announcement of the findings. "This technology can proactively predict breaches before they happen, as well as uncover patterns from past incidents to support policy decisions."

The study, Envisioning the Next-Generation Cybersecurity Practices, presents an overview of cybersecurity in enterprises and analyzes the drivers and challenges to the adoption of best practices in cybersecurity. It also covers the technologies impacting the future of cybersecurity and the main purchase factors.

"Startups need to make their products integrable with existing products and solutions as well as bundle their solutions with market-leading solutions from well-established companies," noted Shah. "Such collaborations will lead to mergers and acquisitions, ultimately enabling companies to provide more advanced solutions."

Technologies that are likely to find the most application opportunities include:

•    Big Data: It enables automated risk management and predictive analytics. Its  adoption will be mostly driven by the need to identify usage and behavioral patterns to help security operations spot anomalies.
•    Machine Learning: It allows security teams to prioritize corrective actions and automate real-time analysis of multiple variables. Using the vast pools of data collected by companies, machine-learning algorithms can zero in on the root cause of the attack and fix detected anomalies in the network.
•    Blockchain: The data stored on blockchain cannot be manipulated or erased by design. The tractability of activities performed on blockchain is integral to establishing a trustworthy network between endpoints. Furthermore, the decentralized nature of blockchain greatly increases the cost of breaching blockchain-based networks, which discourages hackers.

Envisioning the Next-Generation Cybersecurity Practices is part of Frost & Sullivan’s global Information & Communication Growth Partnership Service program.

Being a part of the security industry day in and day out affords me some very unique conversations and learning opportunities about security projects. Take the city of Detroit, their Project Green Light and Guardian Alarm, as an example. 

For those of you who may not know or need a refresher, Project Green Light started in 2016 when the Detroit Police Department (DPD) partnered with eight gas stations installed with real-time cameras, connected directly to police headquarters. This was the beginning of a different type of partnership, one that would take the city, businesses and community on an unprecedented security journey. 

“Project Green Light is a really unique project; it is a very progressive approach to video verification of real time emergency events,” Jason Tague, director of business development, explained. “The way it operates, when a 911 call is received from a Project Green Light location the Detroit Police Department has the opportunity to verify emergency action in real time, and once verified, they are able to direct the nearest police officer or first responder to that location because of video verification.” 

Businesses invest in systems under the agreement that DPD will have access to video cameras to help better protect them, just in case. Businesses are literally “marked” as Project Green Light participants. 

“There’s a select signage package that DPD has trademarked – a logo, along with the name – and program participants have requirements to post a certain amount of signage on their place of business,” Tague said. “Also, there is a green strobe light outside of each business – a ‘beacon’ if you will – that flashes. This creates awareness in communities that it is a place that’s connected … a place that’s safe.” 

The vendor approval process is rigorous, as DPD is very selective about the vendors they partner with, putting great emphasis on standards, policies and procedures in terms of what is expected of and from a vendor. Tague believes Guardian was chosen based on their 85-year tenure in the security industry, being a well-known brand in Michigan, having a broad, established customer base and offering a full-service solution. Perhaps this is why Guardian was chosen for the community’s beloved Don Bosco Hall, a private, non-profit agency that provides services to enhance quality of life for the community’s youth and their families. 

“We were honored to be chosen to work with the community center [Don Bosco Hall],” said Tague, “because it was a complex environment and we had to be very mindful of the environment during installation.” 

During the installation, things didn’t stop moving at the hall. Children were changing activity/classrooms, even when cable was being pulled in an antiquated building. 

“It’s [pulling cable] is a very daunting task,” Tague said, “but we navigated that gauntlet quite well and were very mindful of the environment. The children took interest in what we were doing, so it was a little bit of an educational process along the way.” 

Ultimately, Tague said that it’s nice to know the playground and the outer corridor where the children go out to play offers a sense of security beyond the actual walls of the building itself. 

One of the questions I enjoy asking security professionals is “what else would you like my readers to know?” about any topic of discussion. In this case, Tague concluded with a solid piece of advice that I feel all security integrators should take to heart: keep it simple. 

“We make it easy for Project Green Light participants. Our team has been really great at explaining and helping people understand the process step-by-step, so there are no surprises and everything goes according to plan … everything.” 

So, how do you and your team keep things simple for your customers? Excited for your replies!