It’s a scary world out there. Hackers stalk your networks just waiting to access your data. Identity thieves are busily scheming how to take over your assets. Fraudsters look for ways to take advantage of your good graces for personal gain. Maybe you have total confidence in your information security efforts because your IT team is well-versed at protecting networks and data assets. But what about the business processes themselves, or the people responsible for the day-to-day operations of those processes?

The role of cloud-based services is being increasingly accepted and adopted by users in all parts of life. Cloud-based software is provided as a service over the Internet, typically on a subscription basis.

Thanks, in part, to near field communication (NFC) chips embedded in smartphones, the door has opened for college students and staff to unlock and lock their campus doors using personal smartphones.

Colorado’s Miami-Yoder School District has integrated its access control, intrusion and surveillance to secure the district’s new 91,000-square-foot facility in Rush, Colo. This integrated solution allows school officials to control entry to the building’s multiple entrances and access surveillance video footage of incidents as they unfold.

More than a third of adults involved in student transportation remember their school bus driver's name, according to a poll for First Student. Now and into the future, they will also acknowledge security cameras and their value on their buses. Besides providing a memorable experience, school buses are the safest way for children to get to and from school.

Hours after the December 8 on-campus murder of a Virginia Tech University police officer and the suicide of his killer were resolved, one media outlet turned to how and how well the university got the word out as the emergency progressed. Based on university, law enforcement and expert comments, the mass notification worked well.

The district security head of Littleton Public Schools talks about the security transformation they took to create interoperability and communications between school officials and first responders.

A major trend in the security integration channel has been the evolution of IP security surveillance cameras and Network Video Recorders (NVRs). Instead of using their own dedicated cabling, the devices are sharing the existing IP-based computer network infrastructure. The popularity and affordability of IP networking has driven security integrators to utilize existing Ethernet networks more and more.

Today, the great majority of colleges still deploy picture ID cards, magnetic stripe cards, mechanical keys and barcodes for access control on campus versus newer, more secure technologies such as proximity and, especially, biometrics and smart cards.