Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/173148
28 Tuesday, September 24, 2013 SENSTAR: THE BEST OPTION IN RISK PREVENTION AT POWER SITES By Wendy Young, Midwest District Manager, Senstar Inc. It is estimated that 95 percent of utility companies are going to experience some form of copper theft this year. The 2008 Copper Theft Report from Electrical Safety Foundation International reported that U.S. utilities spent more than $60 million and experienced over 456,000 outage minutes because of theft. This same study attributed 52 injuries and 35 deaths to copper theft in one year. In 2011, the New York Times published an article stating that copper theft was again on the rise: "We believe this is a national security issue," said Bryan Jacobs, Executive Director of the Coalition Against Copper Theft, an advocacy group in Washington that includes telecommunications firms, power companies and railroads. "The only thing keeping it from being an epidemic is that k.r. morghann (Cont'd. from p. 1) starting from the basics and leading up to information about how the content applies to the professional's every day work. "The most important thing we wanted to achieve was to give IT pros information that they could actually use in their work," says Richard Manion, k. r. morghann's Education Practice Lead. Security Awareness is not a new idea in information security, and it has come under fire from many security professionals as not being worth the cost associated with it, but k. r. morghann isn't Nasatka Security (Cont'd. from p. 1) center to provide 24/7/365 support. The second area is product quality. In the last five to seven years, Nasatka Security has improved or redesigned the majority of our products. This was originally driven by the barrier crash test certification scrap yards are now scrutinizing the material. But theft is still rampant." Grounding wires are easily accessible from inside the perimeter and are an easy target for thieves. Increasingly, intruders are risking their lives to venture inside the facilities in attempts to extract these copper components. Unfortunately, utility providers can be held liable in the event of death or injury and sued for damages even if the victim is trespassing on the property. Unfortunately, theft is the least of a utility's problems if someone gets injured. The North American Electric Reliability Commission, which coordinates electric industry activities has implemented regulations designed to protect the industry's critical infrastructure from physical and cyber threats. If utilities do not protect substations in adherence to their regulations, they can be subject to fines ranging anywhere worried about that. "This isn't like other security awareness products," Manion said. "We are not trying to train everyone in the company using the same material." K. r. morghann's initial offering contains three distinct courses. Systems Administrators and Software Developers will each see specific materials targeting their discipline. For everyone else, k. r. morghann offers a less specific version for other IT professionals. K. r. morghann is betting that companies can improve their security posture by targeting training resources and conASTM F2656-07. During that process, we looked at all of our models and spent a large amount of research and development funds to make changes to improve performance from a crash test standpoint. A positive side effect of our R&D is increased reliability and a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) of our entry control OCG Security Daily from $1,000 to $1 million per day, per violation. When it comes to protecting electrical substations, Senstar's perimeter intrusion detection security (PIDS) sensors are the first choice for many utilities. As the world's largest manufacturer of PIDS sensors, Senstar has six different technologies that can provide customized solutions based on budget, level of security and environment. Senstar's sensors and systems can easily be integrated with other security and facility systems to provide a range of desirable features, including video monitoring, access control, central monitoring through SCADA, and lighting. For a "typical" small substation, Senstar offers an out-of-the-box solution with FlexPS. FlexPS is Senstar's latest generation fence-mounted sensor that provides assured detection of any attempt to cut, climb, or otherwise break through the fence. Advanced digital processing allows it to adapt to a wide variety of fence types. Flex PS has kits that are easy to install, cost effective and reliable. A number of recent projects have involved adding a perimeter layer to security systems to catch intruders while they are onsite. Using a Senstar Flex PS system can provide benefits that include a real time alert when someone breaches the fence and software that tunes the system based on the physical environment that it is in–no two fences are the same and installers can easily tune the system to tune out nuisance alarms. The system is easy to install and is designed to make factory commissioning unnecessary. Whether considering a new installation or an upgrade to an existing system, Senstar is an outstanding choice for electrical substation protection. Excellent performance, reliability and integration possibilities are only a few of the benefits that can be expected from Senstar's products. To learn more about Senstar Inc., visit www.senstar.com, call 800-321-9804, or email senstarusa@senstar.com. centrating them on those employees with the greatest access. That could mean that companies become more secure without expanding their security budget. That's good news for many security professionals that are being asked to do more with the same resources. "It is important that as security professionals, we make sure that our fellow IT pros are our allies in the fight against insecurity," Manion said. "Security professionals are outnumbered by hackers, and we're outnumbered by other IT professionals." Recent world events, have under- scored the need to train IT professionals in basic security practices. In response, the NSA plans to eliminate 90 percent of their systems administrators, but that is not an option for most companies. Companies are left trying to figure out how to find and repair problems like the NSA has without the NSA's massive budget. K. r. morghann thinks it has part of the answer. point systems. Product quality is also impacted by manufacturing processes. We've deployed a modern ERP CRM system so we have more control and visibility over our procurement, assembly, forecasting and quality data. Our new system allows us to reduce the order to delivery time frames for our customers. The third area is product performance. Our customers have shifted their requirements over the last couple of years related to what we manufacture. We are currently seeing a much broader use of vehicle barrier systems. Historically, we sold K-12 crash rated systems, now called ASTM M-50 P1, which are at the high-end of crash rated systems. We are also seeing large deployments of the lower-rated systems called K4 or ASTM M30. The difference between the two is the speed the test vehicles are traveling; one at 50 mph and the other at 30 mph. This difference in speed is nearly three times the energy into the barrier. ciated systems. One of the main things we have focused on was the concept of cyber security as it relates to the control of barrier systems and the associated other security systems. It is really no different than a lot of the SCADA systems that are currently out there. Historically, unencrypted information passes back and forth between networked perimeter security devices creating the opportunity for cyber exploits. Our current solution changes that. All the devices in the network are now enrolled, traffic is encrypted and input lines are monitored for tampering. OSD: When you compare Nasatka to the competition, what stands out about Nasatka Security? DN: Nasatka differentiates itself from the competition by combining 30-plus years of industry experience with current demands of the market, including higher performance, better reliability, improved control systems, and tight integration between barrier systems and other asso- For more information, visit booth 3703 at ASIS International, go online to www.krmorghann.com, call 800-8860113 or email info@krmorghann.com OSD: How does Nasatka handle sales? DN: We are supplying more products in the global environment. Over half of our efforts are outside the United States and we are increasing in-country representatives that handle installation, maintenance and sales for our products. In the U.S., we are trying to make sure we take care of the existing Nasatka reseller integrator and general contractor community, as well as the architects and engineers that define new projects. Nasatka is focused on improved communication, easy to find online capabilities and specifications, and new contract vehicles. We work with our channel partners to solve all of our customers' problems. For more information, visit booth 1623 at ASIS or go online to www.nasatka.com.