Contrary to popular belief, access control and management systems rarely solve security problems on their own. In reality, they create opportunities to address such issues.
When you approach the choice of an access control system from the perspective of a ready-made security package that will completely eliminate the company's risks, difficulties are inevitable. Moreover, complex issues will only manifest after the system is deployed.
At the forefront are challenges related to connectivity and interface. However, there are numerous other risks that could threaten the company. In this article, we will thoroughly examine unresolved issues related to interactions with physical security systems, as well as present the Ivideon solution for monitoring personnel and access.
Problems and Risks
1. Availability and uptime
Typically, 'continuous cycle' enterprises include metal manufacturers, power plants, and chemical production facilities. In reality, a significant portion of modern businesses has transitioned to a 'continuous cycle' and is quite sensitive to both planned and unplanned downtimes.
Access control systems cover more users than it seems. In traditional security systems, you need to constantly stay in touch with all users to avoid business downtime—through newsletters, push notifications, and messages like 'colleagues, the turnstile is not working' in messengers. This helps, at the very least, to reduce misinformation during access control issues.
2. Speed of operation
Traditional card-based systems consume an astonishing amount of working time. This happens frequently: employees of our client often forgot or simply lost their access cards. Up to 30 minutes of working time was spent on reissuing passes.
With an average salary of 100,000 rubles for the company, 30 minutes of working time costs 284 rubles. 100 such incidents result in a loss of 28,400 rubles excluding taxes.
3. Constant updates
The problem is that the system is not perceived as something that requires constant updates. Besides security itself, there is also the issue of monitoring convenience and reporting.
4. Unauthorized access
Access control systems are vulnerable to unauthorized access, both external and internal. The most obvious issue in this regard is the tampering of time logs. An employee may 'arrive late' by 30 minutes every day, then carefully correct the logs, leaving management in the dark.
Moreover, this is not a hypothetical scenario, but a real case from our client interactions. Such 'lateness', when calculated per person, resulted in nearly 15,000 rubles of loss for the owner each month. In a large company, this can accumulate to a significant sum.
5. Vulnerable Areas
Some employees can unilaterally change their access rights and move around freely at any time. Do we need to clarify that such a vulnerability presents significant risks to the company?
In general, an access control system is not just a locked door or a turnstile with a sleepy guard. In an enterprise, office, or warehouse, there can be multiple locations with varying access levels. There are areas designated for management only, spaces opened for contractors while everything else is secured, or a conference room for visitors with temporary access, while passage to other floors is restricted. In all cases, an intricate system of access rights distribution can be utilized.
What's Wrong with Classic Access Control Systems
To begin, let's define what a 'classic access control system' is. We will consider: a turnstile or door with an electric lock, access card, reader, controller, PC (or Raspberry Pi or something based on Arduino), and a database.
In the simplest case, there may simply be a person labeled 'Security' who records all visitors' information by hand in a paper log.
A few years ago, Ivideon operated a badge-based access system, just like almost everywhere in Russia. We are well aware of the downsides of RFID cards/keys:
- The card can be easily lost – leading to a decrease in speed and loss of working time.
- The card can be easily forged – the encryption of the access card is laughable.
- A staff member is needed to constantly issue and replace cards and to address any errors.
- Vulnerability can be easily concealed – a duplicate employee card can be identical to the original.
It is worth mentioning access to the database – if you are using not cards, but an application-based system for smartphones, your enterprise likely has a local server with a centralized access database installed. Gaining access to it makes it easy to block some employees and grant unauthorized access to others, secure or unlock doors, or carry out a DOS attack.
It's not accurate to say that issues are simply ignored. The popularity of such solutions is easy to explain – they are simple and cheap. However, being simple and cheap doesn't always mean it's 'good'. Attempts to partially solve problems have been made through biometrics – fingerprint scanners have replaced smart cards. They certainly cost more, with no less downsides.
The scanner does not always work perfectly, and unfortunately, people are not always attentive. It can easily become dirty and greasy. As a result, an employee may show up twice according to the system's reports or arrive but not leave. Alternatively, a finger might be placed on the scanner twice in a row, causing the system to register an error.
With cards, it's not much better – it's not uncommon for a manager to have to manually adjust the working hours of staff due to a malfunctioning reader.
Another option is based on a smartphone application. The advantage of mobile access is that smartphones are less likely to be lost, broken, or left at home. The application helps set up real-time monitoring of office attendance regardless of the work schedule. However, it is not immune to problems with hacking, forgery, and falsification.
The smartphone does not resolve the issue when one user marks the arrival and departure of another. This is a serious problem and losses for companies amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Data Collection
When choosing an access control system, companies often only pay attention to basic functions, but over time they realize that much more data is required from the systems. It is extremely convenient to aggregate data from checkpoints – how many people have entered the company, who is currently present in the office, and on which floor a specific employee is located?
If we look beyond classic turnstiles, the use cases for access control systems will surprise with their diversity. For example, a security system can monitor clients in an anti-cafe, where payment is made only for the time spent.
In a coworking space or anti-café, a modern access control system can automatically track man-hours and manage access to the kitchen, meeting rooms, and VIP areas. (Instead, one often has to deal with cardboard passes with barcodes.)
Another function that is often overlooked is access rights management. When we hire or fire an employee, we need to change their rights in the system. This problem becomes significantly more complex when you have multiple regional branches.
You want to manage rights remotely, rather than through an operator at the checkpoint. But what if you have many rooms with different access levels? You can't station a guard at every door (at least because they sometimes need to leave their posts).
An access control system that only monitors entry/exit cannot help with all the issues mentioned above.
When we at Ivideon gathered these problems and demands of the market for access control systems, we made an exciting discovery: such systems do exist. However, their cost can amount to tens and hundreds of thousands of rubles.
Access control system as a cloud service
Imagine that you no longer have to worry about choosing the hardware. Questions about where it will be located and who will maintain it are eliminated when opting for a cloud solution. And also imagine that the price of the access control system has become affordable for any business.
Clients approached us with a clear task – they needed cameras for monitoring. However, we expanded the scope of typical cloud video surveillance and created for monitoring arrival and departure times with push notifications to management.
Additionally, we connected cameras to door controllers, completely freeing management from issues with passes. A solution emerged that can:
- Allow access by face recognition – no cards or guards needed at the entrance
- Track work hours – collecting data on employee entry and exit
- Send notifications when all or specific employees appear
- Export data on the worked hours of all employees
Ivideon access control system allows for contactless access to premises using. All that is required is a (a complete list of supported cameras is available upon request), connected to the Ivideon service with the Faces plan.
The camera has an alarm output for connection to door lock or turnstile controllers – after recognizing the employee, the door will open automatically.
You can control the operation of checkpoints, issue access rights, and receive security updates online. There is no vulnerable local database. There is no application through which admin rights are granted.
Ivideon access control system automatically sends information to managers. There is a clear report on 'Working Time' and an understandable list of employee detections at the workplace.
One of our clients provided employees access to reports (example in the screenshot above) – this allowed for objectively monitoring data on time spent inside the office and simplified the own calculation of hours worked.
The system is easy to scale from a small company to a large enterprise – it 'doesn't care' how many cameras you connect. Everything works with minimal involvement from the employees themselves.
There is additional video confirmation – you can see exactly who used the 'access card'. Vulnerabilities such as 'remote/forgot/lost card' and 'need to urgently bring 10 guests into the office, give me a card with multi-access' are completely eliminated with facial recognition.
It is impossible to duplicate a face. (Or let us know in the comments how you see this.) The face is a contactless way to open access to the premises, which is important in complex epidemiological conditions.
Reports are continually updated – more valuable information is available.
Let's summarize the main technical capabilities of our facial recognition system, which works both as part of the access control system and for :
- The overall facial database accommodates up to 100,000 individuals
- Simultaneously analyzing 10 faces in a frame
- Event storage time (detection archive) is 3 months
- Recognition time: 2 seconds
- Number of cameras: unlimited
At the same time, glasses, beards, and headwear do not significantly affect the system's performance. In the latest update, we even added a mask detector.
To enable contactless opening of doors and turnstiles using facial recognition technology, on our website. Through the form on the application page, you can leave your contact information and receive complete product consultation.
Source: habr.com
