Building a strong foundation for cyber security

2018 was a big year for public sector cyber security investment in Australia and New Zealand. The New Zealand Government allocated $7.6 million to implement a new Cyber Security Strategy with a commitment to fostering cooperation between government and the private sector, and Governments across Australia also worked toward an integrated approach.

At state level government, New South Wales dedicated $20 million and implemented a new state-wide Cyber Security Policy. Queensland revised its information security policy for greater consistency, and appointed a defence expert to advise on strengthening its approach to cyber security. Meanwhile, Victoria has dedicated more than $17 million to fund a new cybersecurity strategy in response to attacks on its IT systems. These are only a few highlights previously reported by GovTech Review, and are indications that the digital services and responsibilities of modern governments and councils demand cybersecurity by default.

Over the course of 2019, digital transformation in the public sector has been advancing on many levels. Nearly two-thirds of Councils were expected to upgrade enterprise applications or procure entirely new solutions to progress their cloud journey this year. Governments in Australia and around the world are adopting AI surveillance at a more rapid rate than expected. The Asia-Pacific region is reportedly leading the world in IoT spending and the Australian Government has made huge investments in its Smart Cities and Suburbs program.

The evolution of cyber security risks, intensified by technology change and the increasing connectivity of things (machines, cars, electronics, medical tools, appliances, cameras and other physical security mechanisms etc.) demands a strategic approach to cyber security management through all layers of government and its agencies, departments and services. It must be supported at the physical security layer and it must be built into security infrastructure solutions.

New Best Practice in Security Infrastructure:

1. Cybersecurity by default

Constant vigilance is a shared responsibility for end users and technology partners. Security infrastructure should be constantly connected, supported by automated updates and the regular deployment of regular third party penetration tests to stay ahead of threats. A modern security management strategy means that hardware and software updates are integrated including, for example, validated Windows, security management platform and security equipment firmware updates managed in a unified platform. Leading solutions employ machine-learning based antiviruses to protect systems online and offline.

Identifying and closing vulnerabilities should be quick and easy, with user-friendly tools that reduce complexity. It should be easy to verify update status and apply custom configurations and policies. Look for a solution that runs risk assessments to identify potential vulnerabilities.

Enforcement of a standardised level of protection reduces risk significantly. For example, allowing temporary passwords like “Password123” is ill-advised, as too many never get updated. Opt for built-in, forced selection of custom, secure passwords.

2. Fully hardened, out of the box

Hardening an operating system or technology solution means making it as secure as possible against as many threats as possible, eliminating as many risks as possible.

Organisations can limit exposure to cybersecurity threats with solutions and systems that are preconfigured by trusted partners with cybersecurity and security expertise and a reputation for high performance and enterprise-level capabilities.

3. Standardised deployment

Government agencies and councils striving for consistency can opt for technology solutions that offer repeatable installation and maintenance processes to drive efficiency and predictability. Streamline deployment and maintenance and drive down total cost of ownership with the ability to rapidly configure network, computer, anti-virus and security settings.

4. Integration that yields high performance

Technology vendors combining efforts to ensure ease of integration and deployment are making the lives of system integrators and end users easier. Ideally this integration is designed to improve not only system security and hardening, but also capabilities and performance to add business value.

Genetec integrates with Dell Technologies and Intel to deliver next-generation security infrastructure

Genetec is known for its range of ready-to-deploy security infrastructure solutions, called Genetec™ Streamvault™. These optimised and pre-configured appliances are delivered with the operating system, databases, and applications pre-installed and set the bar in terms of security infrastructure best practices. Systems integrators and end users rely on cybersecurity expertise from Genetec and deploy fully hardened systems, with automated updates based on regular testing and vigilance against threats built into the solution.

For the next generation of turnkey security infrastructure solutions, released in 2019, Genetec forged integrations with key technologies to deliver against the mounting performance requirements of organisations and government agencies.

Deep integration with Dell EMC Technologies

The video surveillance market is seeing significant growth worldwide with a rapid increase in the number of multimegapixel and 4k cameras deployed, driven by the switch from analogue to digital, the move from proprietary to open technologies and the resulting drop in prices. In Australia, an annual industry report identified that security product trends for 2019 included cyber security, CCTV monitoring and smart cameras, biometrics and facial recognition.

These technologies demand high performance software and advanced processing power, and come with ever-increasing storage requirements.

Understanding that systems integrators were deploying security software solutions from Genetec on Dell Technologies platforms to harness their processing power and storage capacities, Genetec decided to deeply integrate its software with Dell Technologies prior to deployment. The engineering team from Dell Technologies Surveillance Validation Labs provided testing and validation of the surveillance solution as well as necessary integration support.

Not only did this reduce risks associated with virtualisation, platform benchmarking, sizing, network security, physical security, and big data analysis, it also increased the performance of its unified video surveillance and access control solution on Dell Technologies platforms.

Testing shows that next generation Genetec Streamvault OEM-Ready XL servers offer 225% of the performance of off-the-shelf hardware options. Video throughput has been increased to up to 1,760 megabits per second.

An analytics boost from Intel

^{Reference: Intel® Vision Products use Deep Learning to Transform the Surveillance Landscape}

Businesses, organisations and government agencies are looking to leverage intelligent vision capabilities, such as deep learning, to solve their security, safety, and operational challenges. The need to extract useful vision-based insights is becoming more critical.

The use of Intel® Vision Products and toolkits for advanced deep learning are bringing Genetec Streamvault solutions to new levels of intelligence. The Intel Distribution of Open Visual Inference and Neural Network Optimisation (OpenVINO™) toolkit helps Genetec overcome machine learning environmental challenges to improve accuracy for customers. The resulting enhanced algorithms are available as part of Streamvault application bundles, helping end-users improve vision analytics and uncover more valuable insights. For example, customers in the transportation sector can utilise the toolkit, which allows Genetec to run deep learning algorithms on existing Intel hardware, helping customers better understand vehicle movement, reduce congestion and improve traffic flow.

What is in Streamvault?

The Genetec Streamvault solutions available in Australia and New Zealand are preconfigured appliances that include CylancePROTECT®, machine learning-based antivirus protection, out-of-the-box. The underlying hardware in each one is a Dell EMC OEM PowerEdge 14th generation server. OEM-Ready XL servers have an extended lifecycle and provide advanced notification when server components eventually need to be refreshed. The Intel line of powerful processors are at the core of every appliance, boosting the performance and efficiency of Genetec infrastructure solutions.

For more information, please visit Streamvault™ turnkey security infrastructure solutions.

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