Between Us Pros: Is Your Security Prepared to Weather the Storms on the Horizon?
Turn the latest round of devastating storms into a reminder to review emergency plans and procedures with your channel partners.
Adobe Stock image by Kevin Carden
I am writing this fresh off returning from the other biggest and most important security trade show of the year (the first being ISC West): the Global Security Exchange (GSX), produced by ASIS, narrowly missing getting caught in one of the biggest storms of the U.S. hurricane season.
GSX is North America’s largest event focused on the commercial, industrial and government security professional end-user community.
With this year’s edition held in Orlando, Fla., a backdrop of unexpected drama developed as mighty Hurricane Helene bore down on the region as the show reached its conclusion.
Storm Devastation Followed Us
For those in the southeastern U.S., such as me in North Carolina, storm devastation followed us home. Thankfully, my town just north of Charlotte fared much better than many others did.
Interestingly, next year’s GSX returns to New Orleans for the first time since prior to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. My only industry-related hurricane experience was a Category 1 (Hurricane Fay) that hit during 2014’s PSA Convention, which was especially worrisome due to it taking place on the small, isolated island of Bermuda.
Just a year before that, Hurricane Sandy brought unprecedented flooding to New York and New Jersey, causing the postponement of ISC East and challenging even the most well-equipped security providers like Affiliated Monitoring. Its founder, SSI Industry Hall of Famer Stanley Oppenheim, shared that experience and disaster preparedness advice industrywide.
Especially during catastrophic circumstances, dealers and integrators want to be sure their customers’ system monitoring has been entrusted to third parties that are UL-Listed. Examples include Affiliated and my firm, Elite Interactive Solutions. Being UL-Listed means stringent redundancy requirements have been met, thus ensuring systems continue to be monitored in almost any situation.
‘The Little Thing Will Bring You Down’
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Oppenheim said, “The little thing will bring you down,” adding that cellphones can be overwhelmed and unreliable during large-scale emergencies. His tips included the following:
- Purchase and maintain a supply of two-way radios.
- Have cash on hand.
- Stock plenty of bottled water, food, toiletries, FEMA-approved cots, blankets and bedding.
- Have lots of flashlights, standardize on battery type and replace annually.
- Plan out employee transportation. Know where they live and how they get to work.
- Outfit employees in reflective gear with your company name on it.
Central stations should be prepared for heavy signal traffic and mass deletion of events; have standardized scripts to use with customers, an all-hands-on-deck plan and software vendor response; and focus on cross-training employees to back each other up.
Turn Storm-Related Tragedy Into Opportunity
Turn the tragedy of Hurricane Helene into an opportunity to review emergency plans and procedures with your channel partners. It’s a chance to refine internal preparedness within your organization so you can weather extreme events and recover quickly.
At the same time, if you are a security solutions provider, it is incumbent on you not only to ensure the systems you deploy are as immune to failure as possible (i.e., leverage backup power and NEMA-certified enclosures) but also to guarantee that signal transmission communications (e.g., Ethernet, cellular) are as robust and multifaceted as possible.
At least make commercial and residential customers alike aware of upgrade opportunities and additional safeguards.
That last point also touches on the added responsibility that a consultative security practitioner has to advise clients on emergency preparedness best practices within their own organization to achieve the safest possible environment. This extends over and beyond electronic security and life-safety systems.
Securing the Security
This is akin to physical security integrators ensuring that their networked solutions are as impervious to cybersecurity vulnerabilities as possible, while also offering recommendations to customers on how to keep their own networks intact. It is about securing the security, whether physical or logical.
No security provider can (or should) promise or guarantee that a system will never be compromised or falter. However, collectively, we have learned many lessons through the years, particularly in recent times. These have plotted roadmaps and checklists for those with the wisdom and foresight to follow them. Take heed and do right by your associates and customers.
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About the Author
Scott Goldfine, Contributing Editor
Scott Goldfine is Marketing Director with Elite Interactive Solutions, Inc. Prior to joining Elite, he served as Security Sales & Integration’s chief editor for about 25 years.
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