security & beyond...

Fall in GBP aids Britain's recovery

cass@data-one.co.uk (Data One Solutions) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:14:00 +0000

The global financial crisis has witnessed a fall in the GBP while the Euro has stayed relatively stable. The strength in the Euro continues to afford its members with a solid foundation for overseas investors, which hold concerns with Britain’s public financial mess. However the fall in the GBP has been more a reflection of the flexibility of the monetary policy afforded to the Bank of England rather than the strength of the Euro. Britain as an international financial centre was hit hard, requiring the Government to formulate a rescue package, which was out of the scope of individual countries in the Euro. This entailed the reduction of interest rates and the introduction of quantitative easing. These tools would not have been available to the Government/Bank of England had this right been surrendered to the ECB.

Britain’s companies and public are far more reliant on debt than their fellow European cousins, this made for a difference to the impact of the financial crisis and the need for Britain to reboot its economy. In retrospect Greece has found itself struggling to resolve its debt crisis as the methods carried out by Britain are not in its power to exercise. Therefore Greece has turned to slashing public spending, increases on VAT and is hoping for a u-turn on the EU treaty of a formal ban on member bail-outs. The worst case scenario for Greece is that it returns to its former currency and plunges into years of economic crisis last encountered by the 1922 Turkish military defeat.

The fall in GBP is also contributed to Britain’s forth coming election, as the uncertainty towards the next parliamentary leadership has an impact towards the economy being steered away from the rocks. During the period of imbalance where the GBP is trading at a discount to the Euro, Britain’s exporters are able to capitalise on their cheaper goods and earn extra profit. This profit will enable them to enter new markets in the long term and perpetuate the recovery. The weaker GBP will also go some way to encourage domestic spending as foreign goods and services will be at a premium until the GBP realigns with the purchasing power parity of the Euro of €1.30 as it has already with the USD.

New look

cass@data-one.co.uk (Data One Solutions) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:54:00 +0000

Facebook may be the folks grabbing the headlines for always revising their dashboard, so I didn't want to feel left out. I've been tinkering with the layout and added a few new features to our blog site. Two items may grab your attention, the ad bar at the top leads you to a number of ads posted by Google for the Fire and Security industry.

Also I have added a scrolling technical news update which is regularly updated with some fun and interesting facts. So be sure to come back and visit to take advantage of the latest industry news and gossip.

Lastly, I have added a RSS feeder so you can take advantage of RSS technology and have my posts sent directly to you without you needing to revisit or favourite this site.

Enjoy.

And now Beyond...

cass@data-one.co.uk (Data One Solutions) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:59:00 +0000

Rather than me bang on about the inadequacies of the worlds' security mind set and what's missing!

This instalment I thought it might be fun to look at how the urban gadget junky could pimp his city pad with a few technical extras.

The Front Door - there's nothing worse than successfully negotiating the streets and the cab ride after a few glasses of plonk and then being busted for wrestling with the key to enter your castle. Not anymore! Impress your night guest with the new bio-metric combination lock.

What this lock is about is convenience and the impression that you take your security seriously, plus you don't need to carry keys, thus you can't leave them at the bar! Additionally you can put in a code for a guest and then change it at a future date, thus removing the concern of your cleaner having the keys to your apartment.

What about visitors? - screen visitors with the sleek Siemends Gigaset intercom, which acts as an additional handset to the Gogaset phone system. It can also forward calls to your mobile, so you can nip out and still greet callers and let them in! Yes that's right, no more waiting in for deliveries or workmen. They press the doorbell/intercom, it gets routed to your mobile/cell phone and you decide whether to let them in or provide alternative instructions. Nice!

They did what? - now you can stop worrying with this dinky web cam. It is a neat alternative to a bulky CCTV camera. Position it, sync it with your PC you can watch what it sees online where ever you are.

Mobiles for phone calls only? the Iphone and Blackberry apps enable savvy users to control their home and business security systems from anywhere. Whether 2000 miles away on a beach or sitting on the couch 15 feet from the security keypad.

The new mobile apps are fully integrated with remote security and monitoring offering, connecting customers to their security systems from anywhere at any time.

The mobile apps are easy to use and allow you to:

- Instantly arm and disarm your security systems remotely

- Watch real-time video footage and recorded video clips showing events

- See any security breaches, such as doors and windows

- Access a history of all events reported by the system, such as alarms/power failures/motion activity

Is Britain P A R A N O I D ?

cass@data-one.co.uk (Data One Solutions) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:41:00 +0000

My recent trip to New York provoked an interesting question; is Britain Paranoid or is America just naive when it comes to security?

The lack of electronically security equipment throughout Manhattan Island was fascinating for a country still in shock after 9/11. I roamed subway stations, walkways, shopping districts, commercial buildings and residential blocks and found little presence of security infrastructure other than an old guy wearing a hat to remind you that someone is watching!

The average New Yorker seems to be satisfied with physical human presence in the guise of a police officer or a hired security guard/concierge man, rather than a less expensive and reliable security system. When I did find CCTV in operation it seemed to be so out of date, you would be hard pushed to recognise yourself in the picture, let alone convict anyone from the recorded footage.

Although to say that the Big Apple is devoid of any sophisticated electronics would not be true. Entering JFK customs, with the plethora of biometric scanning of visitors going on is beyond all belief; it makes me wonder who they are selling the data they collect back too!

Also I found a huge amount of equipment where ever cash and stock was to be found. The CCTV system is mightily impressive at the department store Century 21, but is compromised by the poor stock and rack layout within the store. Also within the train stations, cameras are found pointing at ticket machines and ticket counters.

So it would seem that the boarders of the US are safe and so are the shops and cash machines, but what of Joe Public? Britain seems to have an abundance of CCTV in town centres, motorways, car parks, public places and to my experience 95% of London Underground’s public spaces are under CCTV protection. But the news tells us that pretty much anyone can enter the country!

When you are next in London see how far you need to go to get out of the detection of a CCTV camera, because in Gotham once you step out of a cab you are no longer being recorded, but they know you are there in any case!

Friend or foe... The statistics of CCTV...

cass@data-one.co.uk (Data One Solutions) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:41:00 +0000

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8159141.stm

The BBC reported today that our cities are awash with cameras in comparison to neighbouring countries and the USA. Despite the revelation that there are a million or so fewer cameras than previously thought, the statistics that the Shetland Islands Council and Corby Borough Council - among the smallest local authorities in the UK - have more CCTV cameras than the San Francisco Police Department.

The borough of Wandsworth has the highest number of CCTV cameras in London, with just around four cameras per 1,000 people. Its total number of cameras - 1,113 - is more than the police departments of Boston [USA], Johannesburg and Dublin City Council combined.

But so what! The fact that the UK was an early adopter of this technology and has continually invested in its coverage and maintenance has led to criminal discoveries that were once lost or difficult to tackle.

Similar to a sports fans appetite to watch a play over and over again to decide on facts of fair play, we too need the opportunity as a fair and liberal society to turn back time to take a second look. CCTV enables us to do this very thing and make the right call first time round.

Without CCTV as a piece of the jigsaw puzzle of crime fighting, High Streets up and down the country would be a far more different place to experience with pick-pockets, bag snatchers and drug dealing. If you are not familiar with these issues, this is because you are yet to be a victim, it doesn’t mean your favourite and regular shopping haunts are in a bubble of sanctity!

A further example would be the 7th of July London attacks, where Police used CCTV images to back track the journey of the terrorists from the carnage to the train station where they embarked 33 miles away. The evidence provided the Police a further lead that other countries would have spent months trying to unravel and compile.

New York still has a stigma from the 1980’s that their subway stations and trains are unsafe at night, due to criminals preying on locals and tourists. London however does not hold this accolade, since the late 1980’s London Underground has been installing cameras all over its network for passenger and staff safety, which is continually, monitored and recorded.

When we consider CCTV’s original purpose and as it has grown in the main, it is a technological advancement that has allowed our streets and public transport to become safer due to its very existence. Its use for traffic violations and money making via government is not societies best loved idea and goes a long way to destroying the good that CCTV has achieved. As does the bad press received when a council CCTV operator peers through a bedroom window to perk up his dull life.

However, come the day I am mugged again or a loved one is in trouble I will look 6 meters up and hope there is a camera on a pole pointing at the perpetrator.

security is for others, not me...

cass@data-one.co.uk (Data One Solutions) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:02:00 +0000

Security is a word that we have all become familiar with in recent times, to the point where we are blasé about its necessity in modern society. We ignore the vulnerabilities when we pass by them and yet do little about it until the point the weakness has been exploited.

Once said “bad planning on your part, does not constitute an emergency on mine!” victims of crime will stop at nothing to protect their families, staff and property from the naivety that once protected them.

I recall a Sales Director who once had his house burgled. Not uncommon, but it should never have happened to this Sales Director, as he worked for Europe’s largest security distributor, with access to a plethora of electronic equipment that he chose to ignore.

Another tale would be of a guy who complained to the authorities of his neighbours CCTV installation and security lighting, calling it obtrusive and invasive to the neighbourhood. This complaint was quashed when the guy asked his neighbour if he could review the images, as he had been burgled.

Day in and day out I witness endless accounts of gaping holes in commercial security and I am asked to lend my talent and years of experience to resolve it. Design after design and quotation after quotation the customer never adopts what they need or can afford, but what they have budgeted. In many cases this is woefully below their needs, choosing to pay less now than unquantifiable amounts later.

My answer to this has always been to my clients – open your eyes, look at where you work and live! As their executive or procurement agent will undoubtable says “we cannot afford it” reply “we can’t afford not too!”