15 Jan More than half of region’s installed security cameras running with outdated firmware
Weak passwords and outdated firmware continue to compromise the region’s high-tech security systems, claims Firas Jadalla, regional director at Genetec.
“We see enterprises in the Middle East increasingly moving towards unified security environments, where multiple systems combine to provide a comprehensive view of security and operational events. Yet, there seems to be a ‘set it and forget it’ mentality when securing physical devices using passwords, ” he says.
He adds that more than half of installed cameras (53.9%) are running with an outdated firmware and contain known cybersecurity vulnerabilities. “Keeping a default factory password and not updating the firmware puts an entire organisation’s security and its people’s privacy at risk.
Genetec conducted primary research which shows that nearly 1 in 4 organisations (23%) fail to use unique passwords and rely on the same password across all cameras from the same manufacturer. This leaves an easy point of entry for hackers once a camera has been compromised.
The company will be introducing the latest incarnation of its state of the art video management platform Security Center 5.9 at Intersec in Dubai next week. Naturally, new platform features focus on raising awareness about the importance of multidimensional security solutions to mitigate physical and cyber risks.
The open-architecture platform aims to help users actively monitor the health of their system and ensure compliance with cybersecurity best practices. The platform unifies video surveillance, access control, automatic license plate recognition (ALPR), communications, and analytics and features customisable live dashboards, enhanced privacy protection features and, a brand-new map-driven mobile app.
“Physical security devices and systems are smarter and more powerful than ever before. As part of both public and private networks, they are increasingly interconnected. This connectivity facilitates their management, speeds up communications, and increases collaboration. However, this also means that physical security systems need cybersecurity solutions. A poorly secured camera, unencrypted communications between a server and client application, or out-of-date firmware can all be exploited by cybercriminals,” added Jadalla.