Security Technology – Protective Resources

NEC and Conduit Fills for Communications and Security Cabling

by Zack HammAccess Control, Security Consulting December 8, 2022February 8, 2023No Comments

A question that comes up frequently for us when working on security projects with high density device counts is conduit fill. That National Electrical Code typically wants to limit conduit fill to less than 40% of the capacity for cables in the raceway. This is based upon the dimensions of the conductors and the potential …

HID Signo Reader Shortage

by Zack HammCompany News September 19, 2022September 19, 2022No Comments

The use of shielded category Ethernet cable for IP Video

by Zack HammIP Video August 17, 2018February 7, 2022No Comments

It comes up from time to time from customers and vendors when and where to use shielded category twisted pair cable for Ethernet. Most vendors hate it. It’s hard to terminate, doesn’t flex well and nobody ever seems to agree on how it should be grounded. For the most part, it wasn’t much of a …

Products That Don’t Exist, But Should

by Zack HammReviews July 30, 2017July 30, 2017No Comments

While working with a client for a high end residence, he brought up the video door bell gadgets that are all over the internet and in every Lowes or Home Depot. The objective was to have a decorative camera that would recognize video motion and record video and sound for visitors at the doorstep. There …

Facial Recognition for Access Control?

by Zack HammAccess Control, Company News, Security Technology January 23, 2015January 23, 2015No Comments

[dropcap style=”round” color=”blue-grey”]S[/dropcap]everal years ago, I worked on a project prototype for a major group of sea ports that had an interest to use the state’s drivers license image database for facial recognition/verification of TWIC applicants and the eventual use for identity verification for critical card access points. The main focus of the project was …

Digital Video Forensics: Analog and IP Video Cameras

by Kile UnterzuberVideo Forensics January 6, 2015No Comments

While time-lapse video recorders (TLR) using videocassettes remain in use in many smaller video surveillance systems, digital video recorders (DVR) and network video recorders (NVR) continue to be the preferred choice for larger and more complex systems. The video cameras that provide the images to these recording systems may be either analog or IP (internet …

Hacking Sony – Corporate culture broken from the top down

by Zack HammSecurity Technology, Vulnerability Analysis December 17, 2014December 17, 2014No Comments

[dropcap style=”square” color=”blue-grey”]O[/dropcap]ne of the questions I keep asking myself as I keep reading the dozens of recent articles about how Sony got hacked by “North Korea” is, why does Sony KEEP getting hacked? The short answer is “because they can”. But the longer answer points to a corporate culture that doesn’t understand the need …

Do You Know Where Your Power Supply Is?

by Zack HammFire and Life Safety, New Equipment and Gadgets, Security Technology December 15, 2014December 15, 2014No Comments

[dropcap style=”square” color=”blue-grey”]W[/dropcap]e’ve all had it happen: either a bad battery or a blown fuse in a security power supply. It causes cameras to fail, a card access door to stop working, or a whole panel to fail. Power supplies in their simplest sense do a very basic thing: They turn 120 volts AC power …

Layers – Not just for Onions and Ogres

by Zack HammCPTED, Security Consulting December 1, 2014December 3, 2014No Comments

[dropcap style=”square” color=”blue-grey”]S[/dropcap]ecurity has been thought of and taught to others as a “layered approach” for centuries, and as such is not a new concept. The Romans used layered concepts in their infantry tactics as well as their defensive fortifications. With all due respect to “Shrek“, security is like an onion, and is a complex …