PSIM as
a concept emerged because end user managers of security environments
cried out for better management of their security information. They
wanted to be able to do with security data what every other business
unit does with the data from their respective business units – that is,
to make intelligent business decisions.
PSIM is
a better, more flexible and much more useful way of managing security
events and the information needed to respond to incidents than
traditional command centre solutions.
PSIM is simply the security version of the
larger, more important business tool of Information
Management.
THE CHALLENGE
Currently,
improvisational, fragmented and off-the-cuff security management is the
norm. It's common to find security operations and traditional
command-and-control centres using paper-based processes and not sharing
information. Business units and IT departments rarely have access to
data in corporate security departments. Events are managed separately.
Access-control-related
events are monitored and managed separately from intrusion detection
systems, and separate also from environmental sensors and other alerting
systems. Often the people and systems are not even located in the same
facility, inhibiting information sharing and correlation.
THE CONSIDERATIONS
Converged
security and IT networks need to be managed to mitigate any risk of
negative impact through the flood of data induced by an IP CCTV system.
Ensuring
interoperability across different vendors' devices/systems is a
challenge. The physical security market as a whole lacks common, open
standards. Thus, virtually, any deployment requires the development of
new drivers to integrate various systems.
Choosing
the right system. The capability to intelligently analyse and
cross-reference incoming data represents a further challenge, most PSIM
systems, still process individual alarms.
THE BENEFITS
PSIM
principles may be used to produce better situational awareness,
prompting better security and business decisions. Situation management
software creates useful information out of raw video by contextualizing
it (unifying video, alarm and sensor data) which improves situational
awareness and makes incident responses more efficient.
Data
management best practices are more pervasive now. Regulatory compliance
and management best practices dictate that computer systems and data be
handled in standardized ways. Security departments are, in general, not
compliant with these best practices.
The
PSIM system will aggregate, correlate and analyse data from various
sources, including alarms, environmental sensors, intrusion-detection
systems and video surveillance to ….
- Present a situational view of data.
- Guide standard operating procedures by documenting efficient best practices for every situation.
- Identify trends by searching through data from current and past events to create reports.
- Audit operator behaviour by recording all responses to all alerts for later analysis.
CONCLUSION
Physical
Security Information Management systems provide specific security
information based on intelligent analysis of data from a range of
sensors from what would traditionally be disparate systems. It enables
an organisation to manage risk and ensure that standard procedures are
carried out at an enterprise level.
Credit:
Steve Hunt http://www.huntbi.com
Frost & Sullivan http://www.frost.com
chqconsulting
