Hanwha Techwin Access Controllers

The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic has made us all more conscious of who is coming and going from our property. Whether it is a family home, business premises or public building, property owners want full control over access for protection and peace of mind. As a provider of access control technologies, we are seeing a growing demand for automated gates with a variety of access control systems. There are a number of considerations that buyers need to make when investing. And as an installer, there is advice that you can offer to help your clients make the right choice for their property. Here are some of the key considerations you’ll need to make and discuss with your client. Whomever you buy from, you should be offered more than a simple instruction manual. Electronic locks, magnetic locks and code security In the first instance, you’ll need to advise on the type of lock and access control available. Electronic locks release on the operation of the automation system to allow the gates to open. Locks are required for all non-locking (also known as reversible) operators and are recommended for any gate on a multi-user site or any gate over 2.5m. Apply the same logic to an automated gate as you would to a domestic door – for example, you wouldn’t fit your front door with a lock on the same side as the hinges or a drop bolt at the hinge end of a manual gate so why dispense with this logic when the gate is automated? Electronic locks release on the operation of the automation system to allow the gates to open There are a number of locks on the market including magnetic locks, drop locks that “shoot” a bolt into the ground and side latching locks. These are all designed for external use. While the gate itself will provide physical security, the customer will want to feel in control of who enters their property, when and for what purpose. Consider access for mail and deliveries, waste disposal and visitors arriving on foot etc. There is a range of options available. Intercom systems will allow the user to vet visitors, keypad entry can allow remote access for visitors with a specific code, remote controls allow an oncoming driver to open the gates without getting out of the vehicle, and a timer control can be used to open or close the gates at certain times of the day. Vehicle detection loops can be installed discreetly under the tarmac allowing the presence of vehicles to exit the gates and prevent closing while obstructed. Sliding gates versus swinging gates There are a number of locks on the market including magnetic locks, drop locks that “shoot” a bolt into the ground and side latching locks Gates can be automated to either swing or to slide open and in the case of swinging gates, the opener may be concealed underground or gate mounted. The most suitable opener for your installation will depend on the space available and the type of gate selected. Concealed underground automation is ideal for highly ornate gates. However, where gates are fully infilled (typical of many timber designs), gate mounted openers are concealed from the front of the gate by the gate leaf and present a cost-effective option. The choice between slide and swing is largely down to space - swing gates require a clear space for their opening arc while sliding gates require space to one or both sides of the gate. Sliding gates are perhaps the best choice where the drive slopes or when drive space is limited, as they use the least space when opening. Voltage Most swing gate and sliding systems are available in 24v or 230v. The 24v systems still need 230v mains power – there is a transformer built into the 24v control panels. Deciding which voltage to use can include a combination of factors such as the material of the gates, the location of the system and the safety features you want. Concealed underground automation is ideal for highly ornate gates With wrought iron gates, the wind can pass through them whereas with fully boarded wooden gates (popular because they give full privacy) the wind has nowhere to go, so they act like sails. For commercial or industrial applications with larger entrances and a heavy gate, you may need 3 Phase 400v power (sliding gates only). Installing gate motors in confined spaces The environment in which you are fitting may well influence which gate and motor you recommend. Will it be in an exposed area which is subject to the elements? Will it be positioned on a slope? Sliding gates are perhaps the best choice where the drive slopes or when drive space is limited Installers have always faced the challenge of installing gate motors in confined spaces. When fitting a pedestrian gate, there is often limited space in which to work – potentially making an installation time consuming and technically demanding. If this is the case for you, consider a gate operator which is designed specifically for installations with limited space for maneuver. An example of this is the E5 compact gate operator. The operator is not only small but has an optional slide lever attachment designed for installations where there is extremely limited space, meaning that just 8cm of the pillar is needed for installation. What’s more, improved fixing points and a simple ‘hook and fasten’ process means assembly is safe, quick and straight forward. Ultimately, you’ll be looking for a good quality, reliable product with good service. Work with a supplier that offers more than just a manual. If they are happy to offer training, their time and advice when you buy, the chances are you’ll get their support long term.

The unprecedented global impact of COVID-19 has taken its toll on all of us, but as cases of the virus thankfully recede, employers are now forced to confront how they can enable a safe return to work for employees. For many employers, this means they will have to carry out a COVID-19 risk assessment, redesign workspaces to maintain social distances, carry out more frequent cleaning, manage the transmission risk and find alternatives to touch-based security devices. Protecting workplace occupants in any emergency requires preparation and clear communication. This is especially critical in a health crisis involving an infectious disease. These are some of the essential best practices that could help organizations reduce the impact on their employees and operations during this pandemic. 1. Use a visitor management system With a visitor management system, organizations have a single source of real-time and historical insights into who is, or was recently, in the workplace. This is especially important because of the need to perform contact tracing should anyone in the organization show symptoms of COVID-19, meaning everyone they have been in contact with needs to be contacted and asked to isolate. Yet still, first impressions are made at the front desk or lobby, where the visitor experience needs to be a positive one. At the same time, though, any emergency event requires that there be strict control over who is entering the workplace. This policy also needs to be clearly communicated to visitors. Doing this minimizes risk to visitors as well as the workforce. In addition to delivering a high-quality visitor experience, the ideal visitor management system must: Enable organizations to meet regulatory compliance mandates and facilitate check-in at a self-service kiosk to minimize wait times. Customize the visitor experience to support specific security needs, such as accelerating and simplifying check-in or requiring additional security pre-checks. Automate compliance as it relates to visitor access rules with historical visit reports. 2. Pre-check questions at visitor registration kiosks Organizations can strengthen security at the registration kiosk using a flexible, enterprise-grade visitor management system to add visitor sign-in steps. This has proven successful in the past when used to control the spread of infectious disease during an outbreak. An example of this is a U.S. children's hospital which managed to reduce facility infection rates by 25 percent over a two-year period using a commercial, off-the-shelf physical identity and access management (PIAM) solution from HID Global. The solution provides two particularly important capabilities that can be used by organizations to protect their workplace from the uncontrolled spread of an infectious disease: Enhance visitor registration policy with additional mandatory questions to help identify any visitors who may need other screenings. Extend the visitor registration kiosk with a mandatory pop-up asking further questions during visitor check-in. 3. Understand who has visited your workplace Successful controlling the spread of infection throughout a facility requires the ability to automatically maintain an auditable trail of activity. This can be done using an enterprise-grade visitor management system that makes it easy to retrieve historical visit reports. This provides a timeline of who was in the workplace, and when they were there. Key features include: A single dashboard providing useful visitor insights at your fingertips. Historical reports that provide visitor details including location and contact information, all in compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other privacy regulations. 4. Clearly communicate how infection risks can be reduced Global organizations must actively communicate with visitors and employees on the outbreak of infectious diseases and follow best practices outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO). Here are several things organizations can do in this area to help maintain a safe and healthy workplace: Re-enforce and communicate WHO best practices with guideline posters in the front lobby and throughout the workplace. Add posters that also encourage regular and thorough washing of hands. Encourage everyone to cough or sneese into their shirt sleeve in their flexed elbow or cover their mouth and nose with a tissue. Encourage everyone to keep a relatively safe distance from each other and use alternatives to handshakes when saying hello. Organizations must contend with a variety of workplace challenges during the outbreak of an infectious disease. These challenges can be solved with best practices that include a comprehensive visitor management system that automates critical check-in policies and maintains an auditable trail of visitor activity.  

Protecting against fire and security risks is an essential aspect of life for people and across all sectors. However, there is an increasing expectation and demand on fire and security providers, in areas such as education. The securitisation of our world paired with the rapid speed of communication and news updates means that young people especially have the potential to be more aware of potential dangers and threats to their own safety and the safety of those around them. Education institutions are large and sometimes sprawling sites that present considerable fire and security challenges. From Kindergartens to Colleges Each education site brings distinct challenges, with differing facilities and specialties, as well as the need to maintain the capacity of students, teachers and lecturers to study, learn and teach at the high level expected.Each education site brings distinct challenges, with differing facilities and specialties While some schools and universities are based in urban areas with a mix of heritage and high rise buildings, others are sprawled across green open spaces. Some of these sites have specialised sporting facilities, while others may be focused on engineering or scientific study, with costly technical equipment. Kindergartens and primary schools have their own unique requirements. Parents expect the highest safety standards, while schools require safety in addition to efficient facilities management. The demographic of these institutions is predominantly young children, who are often unaware of or only just learning about fire safety and personal safety. This creates a huge vulnerability and an added onus on teachers to keep their students safe. Facial recognition at West Academy of Beijing In response to this need, Chubb China upgraded the closed-circuit television (CCTV) system for Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) focusing on elevating video content analytic features, including maximised CCTV monitoring, automatic police calling, and a smart search solution. Complementing this, a facial recognition system capable of finding the exact location of a student on campus within 30 seconds was added, aided by real-time remote gate operation. This integrated and advanced system resulted won the "High Quality Educational Technology Suppliers for School" award for the WAB project at the 2019 BEED Asia Future Oriented Construction of Universities and Schools Seminar. This award recognizes outstanding solution design and project execution. Parents expect the highest safety standards, while schools require safety in addition to efficient facilities management Awareness remains important at university As students graduate from kindergarten, primary school, junior and senior school, they become more aware of fire safety, relevant dangers and how to protect themselves. Unfortunately, external dangers remain. There are particularly high stakes for university campus facilities managers The safety of students in a university environment is also critical. It is often the first time young people live away from their family home and have the independence of adulthood. For this reason, there are particularly high stakes for university campus facilities managers. In the eventuality of a fire, students could be at great risk and, beyond the immediacy of physical harm, this can have serious ramifications for the reputation of an educational institution. Integrated solutions Integrated solutions must be nimble and adapted to a range of site types including campus residences, recreational areas, open spaces and lecture theatres. Chubb Sicli recently identified and overcame these challenges through the installation of a full suite of fire safety and security equipment and services at Webster University Geneva. Established in Switzerland in 1978, Webster University Geneva is an accredited American university campus that offers programs in English to students interested in undergraduate or graduate-level education.  Located in the Commune of Bellevue, just a few kilometres from Geneva's central station, the campus of Webster University Geneva includes five buildings in a park-style atmosphere. Full fire and security audit Chubb Sicli provided Webster’s fire extinguisher maintenance for over 25 years. This business relationship led to a full fire and security audit that identified the need for updates to the university’s security installation. The initial audit showed several improvements to the university’s security profile were needed.The challenge was to create and provide an effective and interconnected fire and security solution The challenge was to create and provide an effective and interconnected fire and security solution, enhancing the security of the student population and its ever-evolving needs. This included complete fire detection and intruder alarms for all five buildings, upgrades to existing CCTV systems, new video surveillance equipment and an automated fire extinguishing system in the kitchen areas. In addition to this integrated system solution, Webster University required access control for all main entrances, with the requirement that all documentation to be made available in English, because Webster is an American company. Customized solution Chubb Sicli’s quality, capability, and security expertise provided a customized solution for the unique educational establishment. Not only was the solution both tailored and integrated, the approach and planning were based on audit, fire extinguisher and emergency light maintenance, fire detection, intrusion detection, access control, video surveillance and Fire Detection. Through dedicated and integrated fire safety support, Chubb provides students and families peace of mind and security. From the moment a young child enters the education system, Chubb’s diligent and effective surveillance and fire safety systems work to prevent and protect, offering a new kind of ‘end-to-end’ service for education systems around the world.

Hanwha Techwin America, a global supplier of IP and analog video surveillance solutions, announced that it has received the UL CAP (Cybersecurity Assurance Program) certification for its recently-launched range of IP cameras featuring Wisenet 7 SoC (System on Chip). The UL Cybersecurity Assurance Program (UL CAP) aims to minimize risks by creating standardized, testable criteria for assessing software vulnerabilities and weaknesses in embedded products and systems. This helps reduce exploitation, address known malware, enhance security controls, and expand security awareness. The program evaluates the security of network-connectable products and vendor processes to help organizations manage their cybersecurity risks and validate their cybersecurity capabilities to the marketplace. Physical security industry A long standing and vocal advocate for cybersecurity best practices in the physical security industry, Hanwha is one of the few camera manufacturers in the world to be granted this certification. While the UL CAP certification typically takes 8 to 10 months, Hanwha Techwin was able to meet all of UL’s stringent evaluation criteria in just 3 months thanks to the well-established software development processes already put in place by its dedicated in-house cybersecurity department. When firmware is installed and a certificate is verified, it uses these encryption keys which can never be reprogramed Built on 30 years of innovation in video surveillance solutions, the Wisenet 7 custom-built SoCs are designed specifically to address the unique cybersecurity challenges of the security market. Wisenet 7 cameras offer end-to-end cybersecurity with high levels of protection including secure boot, OS, storage, and JTAG, plus a signed firmware/open platform app and more. Critical infrastructure organizations Hanwha Techwin established its own device certification issuing system to embed certificates and encryption keys into the product during the manufacturing process. When firmware is installed and a certificate is verified, it uses these encryption keys which can never be reprogramed. This creates a trusted platform module that separates the end-user side of the camera application from the network (Linux). This OTP (One Time Program) feature provides a unique level of cybersecurity that is secure by default and only possible when utilizing a custom chip. “UL CAP certification is quickly becoming a bidding requirement for both government and critical infrastructure organizations,” said Tom Cook, Senior Vice President at Hanwha Techwin America. “This certification reaffirms Hanwha’s position as a cybersecurity industry leader.”

Hanwha Techwin’s position as global in video surveillance has been reaffirmed with the announcement that Wisenet7, the company’s next generation proprietary camera chipset, has achieved UL Cybersecurity Assurance Program (UL CAP) certification. With cybersecurity being a top priority for the electronic security industry, the certification enables Hanwha Techwin to validate that its latest generation of Wisenet cameras are equipped with the highest possible levels of protection from the activities of cyber criminals.    UL CAP is a certification program run by UL, a company which has been a global in safety science for over 100 years. The program assesses potential cybersecurity issues and the level of risk from hackers in respect of network-connectable hardware devices and software. UL CAP certification With the support of the certification, Hanwha Techwin is able to provide peace of mind to system integrators and end-users Hanwha Techwin is among only a handful of manufacturers within the video surveillance industry that have so far achieved the UL CAP certification for their products and is the only one within Korea to have done so. With the support of the certification, Hanwha Techwin is able to provide peace of mind to system integrators and end-users seeking to comply with GDPR by ensuring confidential data cannot be accessed, copied or tampered with. Although it usually takes in the region of 8 to 10 months, Hanwha Techwin was able to complete the certification process within 3 months as the company’s in-house Security Computer Engineering Response Team (S-CERT) had already been working on addressing any potential security vulnerabilities in Wisenet hardware and software. This ensured that Wisenet7 was able to meet all of UL’s thorough evaluation criteria, such as penetration test, access control and user authentication, encryption and software updates. Wisenet7 chipset Wisenet7 chipset boasts a list of technologies which are designed to improve cybersecurity credentials The ground-breaking Wisenet7 chipset boasts an impressive list of technologies which are designed to significantly improve the cybersecurity credentials of Wisenet cameras. These include: Secure Boot Verification: This provides an extra layer of security by sandboxing different elements of a camera’s operating system, which means they are in a protected space. A full boot is completed before there is communication with any other part of the system. This prevents interruption to the boot process which could be exploited by a hacker. Secure OS: Wisenet7 uses a separate secure operating system (OS) for encryption and decryption, as well as for verifying that apps have not been modified or are not forgeries. A separate Linux based API is needed to access the Secure OS, without which there is no way to make any changes from the outside of a camera. Security features By enforcing restricted and secure access to the UART port, Wisenet7 allows the debugging process to be safely completed Anti-Hardware Clone: This functionality prevents Wisenet7 from being cloned. In addition to protecting intellectual property, this ensures that a Wisenet7 chipset with a Hanwha Techwin label is a genuine copy and removes the risk of a cloned device which may contain malicious software being used to steal sensitive data, such as passwords. Secure JTAG: JTAG ports are hardware interfaces which are used to program, test and debug devices. Cyber criminals can gain low level control of a camera via a JTAG port and perhaps replace firmware with a malicious version. Wisenet7 prevents this from happening as it secures JTAG ports via a key-based authentication mechanism to which only authorized personnel working for Hanwha Techwin have access. Secure UART: UART ports are serial interfaces typically used for debugging cameras. They allow administrator access to a camera and are therefore a target for hackers attempting to access sensitive information, such as password keys. By enforcing restricted and secure access to the UART port, Wisenet7 allows the debugging process to be safely completed without opening the door to cyber criminals. Global provider in cybersecurity Cybersecurity is essential for network video surveillance products as it allows us to provide end-users with confidence" “Cybersecurity is essential for network video surveillance products as it allows us to provide end-users with confidence in knowing that their confidential data will be kept safe from hackers,” said Uri Guterman, Head of Product & Marketing for Hanwha Techwin Europe. “Achieving UL CAP certification for Wisenet7 underscores our commitment to equip our next generation of cameras with innovative features that set a new standard for cybersecurity.” “The certification helps us maintain our position as a global leader in a number of different ways. In Europe, Middle East and US, for example, major projects which are subject to a tender process often stipulate that UL CAP certification is required. In the private sector, it is not unknown for sensitive facilities such as laboratories and banks to insist that a supplier should have the certification.” “As such, Wisenet7’s CAP certification enables us to more actively promote our cybersecurity features as one of Hanwha Techwin’s strengths.”

Traditionally, security industry professionals have often come from backgrounds in law enforcement or the military. However, the industry is changing, and today’s security professionals can benefit from a variety of backgrounds and educational disciplines. The industry’s emphasis on technology solutions suggests a need for more students of computer science, engineering and other technology fields. The closer integration of security with related disciplines within the enterprise suggests a need to prepare through a broad array of educational pursuits. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What is the role of higher education to create the next generation of physical security leaders?