By ASG's Professional Services Group

If you know me, you know that I like to talk. I enjoy a good conversation. I like talking about a problem and getting all the facts out on the table even if some might be hard to swallow. However, I have trouble when I receive emails more than five sentences long or have more than a half dozen others cc’d on the message.  I also don’t like to leave long messages on phones and  usually only text someone to let them know I want to talk.

This past week, members of ASG’s business alliance and management team attended the 2011 PSA-TEC in Denver. It is PSA Security Network’s annual event bringing together integrators, manufacturers and end users from across the country. This year the focus was clear – collaboration. With strong attendance and thought-provoking speakers, forums and training classes, the urgency for integrators to collaborate across the security ecosystem was a key topic this year. 

By Michael Brown, Applications Engineer at ASG

I recently came across an article that I wanted to share with the ASG reading audience to find out what you, in the industry, think of this issue.  The article The Myth of MPEG in Court is something that has been argued for a while now and I feel that we need to debunk this myth once and for all.

By ASG's Professional Services Group

I discovered something ironic on a recent client trip overseas.   I found out that it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, the story for customers doesn’t change.  While with a client in the Middle East, I met with some of the higher ranking people within the organization. They explained to me that they were in dire need of someone who could help them with their strategy and not just sell them cameras. Through our discussions we were able to sit in on an integrator briefing around a project and I noticed the same questions I have heard many times in many meetings just like this one:

By Mike Kobelin, Chairman of PSA

Set for next week in Westminster, CO, PSA-TEC provides security integrators and industry professionals with expert education and training, introductions to the latest technologies as well as unmatched peer-to-peer networking with others from our ecosystem.  This event is targeted to fulfill the needs and requirements for all levels of system integrators focused on Business Optimization, Physical Security, IT and Managed Services as well as other industry specific knowledge pertaining to the physical security community.

By Lorna Koppel, CISO Kohler Co. & Keynote Speaker at The 2011 ASG Security Summit

The human capacity for processing large amounts of information and drawing conclusions is primal and amazing to say the least.  However, we can’t always get a logical grasp of what our instinct or our subconscious is telling us based on all the input sources that hit us.  Our gut often times is the determining factor that gives us the clues that help us realize the logic behind the impression.  

By Jeffrey A. Slotnick CPP, PSP, President Setracon, Inc. & Keynote Speaker at The Great Conversation, ASG Security Summit & Expo

 
Having conducted risk, threat, and vulnerability assessments for some years now, I have encountered an issue which seems common to many organizations.

How do I manage and utilized the data I have collected on my assessment?
Most small businesses to large enterprises have conducted some sort of assessment.  Whether it was for Security, Business Continuity, or Continuity of Operations, the first step in this process for all of these is a comprehensive risk assessment.  If the organization is serious about risk identification they have revisited these assessments and refreshed them several times.

By Nigel Waterton, Director of Business Development

In 2007, The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program.  It required chemical facilities to prepare Security Vulnerability Assessments and Develop and implement Site Security Plans that should include measures to satisfy risk-based performance standards.

Now nearly 4 years later Timothy Scott, Chief Security Officer for the Dow Chemical Company recently testified in front of congress that “CFATS is by far the most robust, comprehensive and demanding chemical security regulatory program to date. It takes a well-designed risk-based approach, sets a high bar through performance-based standards, and holds high risk facilities accountable for meeting those standards.”