Genetec Discusses Better Cybersecurity at Connect Press Summit

Genetec welcomed security editors to its HQ to talk about cybersecurity, subscription services and how it looks to help the retail industry.

MONTREAL ― Security Sales & Integration attended Genetec’s annual Press Summit for security trade editors last week.

The weather was a brisk 18 degrees fahrenheit with a hint of cybersecurity in the air, but that was no coincidence.

Between the keynote presentation by a “certified ethical hacker” and a roundtable discussion on the “security of security,” the ‘17 Connect Press Summit featured a heavy emphasis on cybersecurity.

Day one of presentations featured Genetec’s President and CEO, Pierre Racz, discussing how his company dropped compatibility with Chinese government-owned camera manufacturers.

“We’ve said very categorically, that we don’t support [the cameras] out of the box. You need a special license and for us to grant that license you need to sign a waiver that you will hold us harmless if those devices attack you or attack other people on the network.”

Racz emphasized that Genetec is doing everything possible to protect end users from cyber attacks.

“There’s something that we’ve been pushing and it’s actually starting to gain traction. We’ve been telling the consultant community and end-user community that they should insist on cyber incompetence insurance from manufacturers and from the integrators.”

Cyber Liability Insurance Coverage (CLIC) has been around for 10 years, but has been struggled to attract much acceptance in the marketplace. This is because many insurance underwriters do not sell CLIC due to a lack of data for the underwriting community and lack of knowledge by consumers to understand the risk transference benefits.

The final day of the Press Summit featured a keynote presentation by Hart Brown, senior vice president, practice leader at HUB Int’l, an insurance brokerage firm.

Pierre Racz

Genetect President, CEO and Founder, Pierre Racz

 

Also a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Brown explained the process of hacking step by step and how easy it is nowadays.

He showed clips from television shows and movies featuring what seem to be outlandish hacking devices, such as a USB stick that can steal all your data in a matter of seconds as soon as it’s plugged in.

And a ‘pineapple,’ a wireless mobile device that can instantly gain access to all devices within 20 feet. Warning: They are all real.

The most shocking thing we learned is that these are all commercially available for purchase on the Internet.

Next up, Genetec Security Architect Mathieu Chevalier showed how easy it is to hack an IP camera by simply looking them up on an IoT search engine and logging on to them using the camera’s default credentials.

What’s Next for Genetec

In between talks on cybersecurity, attendees were treated to the latest ideas and products Genetec has to offer.

Genetec Clearance is a collaborative case management system that helps end users manage the storage and distribution of digital evidence by breaking down traditional technology silos.

A retail security officer wastes valuable time sifting through hours of video, ensuring it is in the proper format and burning it to a disc before sending it to the police station. With Genetec Clearnace, all they would have to do is send the video with the click of a button.

Genetec says their vision is to help agencies increase their clearance rates and speed up investigations by securely collecting, managing and sharing evidence from different sources.

Genetec’s Vice President of Marketing Andrew Elvish described it as, “Salesforce for security people.”

Genetec’s Citywise aims to connect the many parts of a city’s security structure and provide the tools to share and collaborate.

Detroit’s Project Green Light was shown as an example. Using Genetec’s cloud platform Stratocast, participating gas stations in high-crime areas relay their live surveillance feeds directly to the Detroit Police Department.

Crime was reported to be down 50% in pilot groups.

While the first thing you may relate to Genetec is security, the company now aims to transform the retail industry with the Genetec retail intelligence analytics system.

The intelligence is designed to help businesses interpret customer behavior and create the right settings for browsing and buying.

One of many examples editors were shown included the image of the inside of a store with thermal hotspots, revealing what sections of the store attract the most foot traffic and attention.

Stay tuned for more coverage of Genetec’s 2017 Connect Press Summit, including a look at our site visit to Sainte-Justine Children’s Hospital.

In the meantime, make sure to check out this behind-the-scene look at the Press Summit presentations!

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About the Author

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Steven A. Karantzoulidis is the Web Editor for Security Sales & Integration. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a degree in Communication and has a background in Film, A/V and Social Media.

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