7 December 2021 - Security Buyer Magazine

Johnson Controls incorporates PLAI Adapter

Johnson Controls has introduced the PLAI Adapter for the Tyco Software House C•CURE 9000 security and event management system, which connects to the PLAI Agent for physical access control system compatibility. This open standards approach enables enterprises to easily manage personnel identity and physical access across disparate physical access control platforms and other identity-based systems, reducing complexity and cost in system administration and improving the employee and user experience. The Physical-Logical Access Interoperability (PLAI) specification provides an open standard method of sharing and managing personnel, credential, card format, and biometric details across an enterprise. This enables customers to use their current badge technology and biometrics without the need for duplicate enrollments in different systems and the need to issue multiple credentials. Created by the Physical Security Interoperability Alliance, the PLAI specification employs an open standard approach to integrating these different platforms as opposed to relying on individual platform drivers, simplifying the integration process. The ability for centralised management of Personal Identifiable Information (PII) across multiple systems with the C•CURE 9000 PLAI adapter can ease compliance with data privacy regulations, such as GDPR, and reduce the risk of unauthorised access caused by identity conflicts in the operation of the access control system. This helps to reduce total cost of ownership by easing the administration burdens of making changes to users, credentials, locations, and roles. Open standards can also extend the life of current systems and allow organisations to defer the cost of standardising on one physical access control platform. By supporting interoperability with other PLAI conformant access control technologies and biometrics, systems can be extended to include security events and door control as well as visitor management functions. PLAI Adapter for Tyco Software House C•CURE 9000 is part of the Johnson Controls OpenBlue suite of connected solutions that support healthy people, healthy places and a healthy planet. Media contact Rebecca Morpeth Spayne, Editor, Security Portfolio Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 922 Email: editor@securitybuyer.com

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CDX scored in top 5% of UK security companies

UK News Desk / Rebecca Morpeth-Spayne

Family-run security firm, CDX Security was recently scored in the top 5% of UK security firms, following a successful audit from the Security Industry Authority (SIA). The Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS), commissioned by the SIA, aims to protect the public and maintain and improve standards within the security industry. Firms are marked against seven criteria and must consistently demonstrate excellent service delivery and sound business management. Warrington-based CDX Security, who have been operating since 2012, successfully demonstrated compliance in all areas and scored an impressive 126 points out of 145, placing them in the UK’s top 5% security firms. Elliot Roddy, Group Operations Director at the firm, said of their recent success: “We’ve worked really hard to ensure our working practices are market-leading, and it’s fantastic to see this recognised by a leading industry body. “We’ve grown really quickly over the past three years and achieving a top 5% score has really been the cherry on top of the cake. We’ve got some big plans for further growth as we move into 2022, and I’m really confident that with the continued support from our team, we’ll be able to achieve these.” To support this impressive growth trajectory, the firm has hired a new General Manager, Jason Roughely, who will help enhance their existing operational processes and procedures to bring these further in line with existing SIA standards. Jason, who has more than 25 years of experience in the security industry, joins the firm from M4 Facilities Management, where he was Northern Managing Director. Speaking of his new appointment, Jason said, “I’m over the moon about my new role and feel that this is a particularly exciting time to be joining CDX Security. “They’ve grown really aggressively over the past three years in particular and I’m very much looking forward to helping them further develop their strategy and use my expertise to support them in achieving some of their growth plans.” Commercial Director, Christian Roddy, added, “We’re thrilled to have Jason on board at CDX and are really looking forward to him helping us refine our strategy so we can sustain our impressive growth. “We’ve known him for the past 20 years through industry circles and are confident that his expertise will be instrumental in helping us take our business plans to the next level.” CDX Security was founded in 2012 and is a family run business based in Birchwood, Warrington. Media contact Rebecca Morpeth Spayne, Editor, Security Portfolio Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 922 Email: editor@securitybuyer.com

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TDSi and SORHEA announce line-up Intersec 2022

Event News / Ghyslaine Cordrey

Integrated security manufacturer TDSi is proud to announce it will be showcasing its range of integrated access control solutions at Intersec in Dubai, 16-18 January 2022. Joining TDSi on Stand SA-F37 in the Saeed Arena will be its VITAPROTECH sister company, SORHEA, which will also be showing its innovative perimeter intrusion detection solutions. John Davies, Managing Director of TDSi commented, “We are very excited to be appearing back at Intesec again for 2022, which is being held slightly earlier this time. We will be sharing a bigger stand than last time to ensure we can include TDSi’s and SORHEA’s latest solutions and are able to accommodate as many visitors as possible. Both TDSi and SORHEA see the Middle East as a region for growth, having brought onboard a lot of new partners in 2021.” Stand SA-F37 will focus on TDSi’s new GARDiS controllers and readers, specifically the OSDP and BLE readers which deliver impressive cybersecurity and ease of use. TDSi will also be talking about its forthcoming long-range smartphone reader capability, which addresses the ongoing need for the safety and flexibility of minimum-touch access control solutions. Another key aspect of the TDSi stand at Intersec 2022 will be the cloud-based security abilities of the GARDiS range, which can be fully deployed in the cloud. Davies elaborated, “We will be giving demonstrations of how the GARDiS software can be deployed in the cloud, using our sites in the UK and France to show people how they can interact and control access control systems at remote locations.” SORHEA, a manufacturer of perimeter intrusion detection systems for critical infrastructure, will be demonstrating several of its emblematic products. Benjamin Tate, International Sales Manager at SORHEA commented, “Intersec is a major event in our diaries as we continue to develop our business throughout the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions. This year we will be demonstrating our MAXIRIS active infrared barrier with remote access and zoning functionality as well as our new shock detection cable the G-FENCE 2400 with IP connectivity. In the Middle East, SORHEA protects many Oil & Gas sites with its PIRAMID ATEX microwave detector, which will also be on show in Dubai. Finally, integration with VMS is key to our success and we shall be demonstrating our integration with MILESTONE, one of our Technology Partners and another major player in the Middle East.” As well as demonstrating the considerable abilities of their products, TDSi will also be providing technical training to its local partners and installers off-site from the exhibition. As well as training in Dubai, the TDSi training team will also be training further groups in Bahrain as well. Media contact Rebecca Morpeth Spayne, Editor, Security Portfolio Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 922 Email: editor@securitybuyer.com

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OCF specs deployed in Korea’s Smart Home Project

News Desk / Ghyslaine Cordrey

The Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) has adopted the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) secure cloud-connected technology as the foundation for its national Smart Home Platform. This has helped LH to overcome significant IoT security, privacy and interoperability challenges. The initiative enhances residents’ living experiences through access to smart healthcare, intelligent safety systems, greater convenience through automation and improved energy management and control. All of this is achieved through the convenience and automation of the LH Smart Home. The OCF is a global, technical standards development organisation. Its 500+ members work to enable trust, interoperability, and secure communication between IP-connected IoT devices and services. It does this by fostering collaboration between stakeholders across the IoT ecosystem to deliver ISO/IEC specifications, including the Secure IP Device Framework, its open-source reference implementation, and an industry-recognised certification program. Jin Meong Eo, Director of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation, added, “We have made it our mission for all public housing to adopt smart homes. This is not only a response to the government’s digital policies. We are working to continue Korea’s leadership in innovation for the good of society. We are opening up access to healthcare, making living environments safer and saving energy to protect the world around us. OCF is one of the key components in helping us to achieve this in a secure, scalable way and that is why we chose OCF in our project.” A secure and private-by-design IoT smart hub in each home collects and analyses IoT big data. It also features built-in fine dust and CO2 sensors, and helps residents to control 15 different types of device via an OCF-compliant Smart Home app. Based on this project, the goal is to continue to expand into public housing, with more than 223,000 households estimated by 2025. Mr. Mark Trayer, Chairman of the OCF Board of Directors, commented, “Connecting IoT cloud environments with a range of devices and device types presents significant security, privacy and interoperability challenges. This is limiting consumers’ options and hindering market expansion. As governments work to connect infrastructure, proprietary IoT solutions can’t meet their requirements. Delivering a smart home service like this at scale both answers these challenges while improving tenants’ lives. This is true leadership from LH, and a model that can be replicated elsewhere.” OCF collaborates with the IoT ecosystem to deploy and evolve the OCF ISO/IEC specifications, including the Secure IP Device Framework, its open-source reference implementation, and an industry-recognised certification program. All of this enables secure end-to-end implementations that encompass device-to-device, device-to-cloud, and cloud-to-cloud. The technology fosters competition, facilitates productivity, and drives innovation while aiding secure deployments with rapid development and simple integrations with IP networks and non-IP systems. Media contact Rebecca Morpeth Spayne, Editor, Security Portfolio Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 922 Email: editor@securitybuyer.com

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Barracuda delivers email threat detection

Middle East News Desk / Editor

Barracuda Networks furthered its commitment to deliver email security solutions which are easy to use with the announcement of three new Email Protection plans which scale to meet customers’ evolving threat protection needs. Barracuda’s comprehensive solutions combine gateway and API-based AI technology to detect and remediate threats and reduce the risk that a malicious attack succeeds by immediately and automatically eliminating the user’s ability to view or launch flagged emails. “The threat landscape has evolved and, coupled with the gap in security professional talent facing most businesses, protecting against these threats is extremely complex. Barracuda Email Protection offers customers complete protection by combining gateway defense, API-based inbox defense, incident response, data protection, and user security awareness capabilities,” said Don MacLennan, SVP, Engineering & Product Management, Email Protection. “Barracuda was the first to bring an “API approach” to impersonation and phishing protection — leveraging AI and machine learning. Today, we continue to lead with our unique combination of gateway and API-based AI technology to detect and remediate email threats in real time for Office 365 customers.” Recent attacks have shown that Office 365 native security alone has gaps and that third-party solutions are required to ensure customers are fully protected. According to Gartner, “Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (MSDO) offers a wide set of email security capabilities, but due to the rise in business email compromises, account takeovers and other sophisticated attacks, many times some malicious emails are actually missed by MSDO, and in fact by any other email gateway solutions. Therefore, organisations should strongly consider integrating third-party solutions to strengthen their email security capabilities. Aside from traditional gateway solutions, security and risk management leaders should evaluate API-based solutions to act as an additional layer of protection.” With Barracuda, customers receive an integrated and validated suite of capabilities to protect their people and business which includes: Threat prevention: Prevent attacks from getting through by combining email-gateway defenses, API-based inbox defense, and web security. Post-delivery detection and response: Identify and limit the impact of any threats that reach users with automated response and user security awareness training. Data protection: Ensure compliance and stay productive during downtime. Back up important Office 365 email and data to recover easily from malware attacks or lost data. Automated workflows: Easily create custom workflows to completely automate incident response. SIEM/SOAR/XDR integrations: Public-facing APIs for integrating with third-party platforms to enable seamless and consistent response to security events. Barracuda Data Inspector: Data classification capabilities to help find sensitive data such as Personal Identifiable Information (PII) and malware. Media Contact Rebecca Morpeth Spayne, Editor, Security Portfolio Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 920 Email: editor@securitybuyer.com

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ThycoticCentrify strengthens executive team

Middle East News Desk / Editor

ThycoticCentrify, a provider of cloud identity security solutions, announced the addition of several industry veterans who will play a key role in supporting the company’s next phase of global growth. Executive leadership additions include Chief Legal Officer, Suzanne Tom; Senior Vice President of Product Management, Jon Kuhn; Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development, Ram Venkatachalam; and Vice President of Business Operations and Chief of Staff, Josh DeLong. Additionally, Pascal Van Dooren has joined the company’s Board of Directors. “We’ve added proven leaders to our executive team who will be pivotal in supporting our company’s accelerated growth plans,” said Art Gilliland, CEO of ThycoticCentrify. “Each of these industry veterans bring a world-class level of expertise and knowledge as it relates to business transformation and navigating the challenges that arise when scaling in a time of rapid growth.” Tom was most recently SVP and General Counsel at Calix, where she was instrumental in guiding the business through its successful transformation to a platform and SaaS company while building strong governance and operational processes for strategic growth. Prior to Calix, Tom was VP, corporate legal and compliance, at Verifone through a period of significant global expansion organically and through acquisitions. Previously, she held a number of legal and corporate roles, including serving as a law clerk to Judge Ronald M. Whyte of the US District Court for the Northern District of California (retired) and practicing as a corporate attorney at Latham & Watkins. Kuhn joins ThycoticCentrify having previously led and served as VP of Products for F5/NGINX’s security and DevOps portfolio of products, including the company’s application identity and access management, network and application protection solutions, and leading the effort to build a dominating position in their portfolio of DevOps solutions. He joined F5 from Symantec, where he held various product leadership roles in Symantec’s enterprise endpoint security, mobile security, mail security, and web security product lines. Kuhn has a proven track record of building businesses and teams and will lead ThycoticCentrify’s product strategy and roadmap. Venkatachalam brings more than 15 years of experience in corporate development and strategy, financial advisory, and product development to ThycoticCentrify. He previously served as Senior Director at Hewlett Packard Enterprise where he led acquisitions, investments, and strategic partnerships. Previously, he was Vice President at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch’s Technology M&A group and an Associate at BMO Capital Markets’ M&A team, where he advised and executed transactions across enterprise software, internet and tech hardware. Media Contact Rebecca Morpeth Spayne, Editor, Security Portfolio Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 920 Email: editor@securitybuyer.com

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