Security buzz at CES

I didn't make it out to the Consumer Electronics Show for the fact that we built SecurityInfoWatch.com as a site for the business professionals within our industry -- security directors, integrators, dealers, manufacturers and others. Curiously, though, a number of reports and press releases I've received from the show indicate that CES had a decent amount of security products being heralded on the show floor. From thermal night vision to new full-feature DVRs that record in H.264, there were products at CES that you'd normally expect to see only at the ISCs, ASIS shows and specialty security shows. Let's hope this means more awareness for electronic security products, and maybe someday a security product will create 1/10th of the excitement as the Play Station 3 or the Nintendo Wii.

Bicycles on video analytics
Video analytic researchers seek to ID bikes with correct owners

Did you know that "over 500,000 bicycles are stolen annually in the UK and only five per cent of these are returned to their owners"? I didn't either, however that interesting statistic is known in a UK university's engineering department where they're working on a video analytics algorithm that could potentially recognize if the correct owner is departing with a bicycle. While the work may be somewhat theoretical (it's going to be hard to sell cities and schools on expensive video analytics when the students could simply buy bike locks for less than 10 pounds), it does show that universities are aiding on the back-end engineering and research that will affect our industry's commercial deployments of analytic technologies. And who knows, bike thieves might just have to take note...

In other news this week
Stolen tankers, FERC regulations, new NBFAA site, officers down

It's not a trend yet, but with two news media reports of stolen fuel tankers in one month, our eyes are open. Tankers pulled by 18-wheeler cabs could potentially become terrorist targets, or they could simply be targets of financial opportunity. Simple security technologies deployed in the form of fleet management systems could easily minimize such attacks, or at least create faster, targeted police responses.

Also this week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) OKed new standards apply to security of power company control systems, security training for employees, incident reporting and recovery planning.