Words of warning

Written five months or so before the 7/7 bombings, the words of a press release sent out from a UK security consultancy to Security Installer magazine now seem chillingly prophetic:

"Although thwarted in the UK to date, it is accepted in security circles that it is only a matter of time before the terrorists are successful here. The former Police Commissioner said recently that there are over 200 identified suspects walking free in the UK. The method of attack will most likely be a vehicle or a suicide bomb, as these are the current preferred options.

"The targets are numerous. Recent activity suggests that the infrastructure will be at the top of the list, whether that be road, rail or air or even water supplies …"

The words, headlined "Complacency is a terrorist's best friend" came from TPS Consult, the UK's largest security and counter terrorism consultancy and publicised a seminar highlighting the need for organisations to fully assess the risks and implement disaster recover plans. TPS's Chris Bowes was quoted as saying "The threat is there and it is real. There may well be a level of complacency already – there have not been any terrorist incidents in the UK recently to highlight the threat although the train bombs in Spain last year did show that Western Europe is a target."

Home made devices

With expectations of an attack seemingly so high among security experts, there was inevitable media criticism of the security services following two official reports into the incident published in May of this year.

The reports documented how this essentially untrained group of home-grown terrorists set out from Leeds to wreak destruction on London using home made devices.

The much-publicised report of the Intelligence and Security Committee said although there were "no culpable failures by the security and intelligence agencies" the fact that the attacks were not prevented shows there were areas for improvement.

But could the private security industry have done more to deter attacks? What has been the result for the industry and how will it affect future developments?

As the reports were published, the private security industry was preparing for IFSEC 2006 and much talk at the this year's event centred on 7/7, so we asked these questions to some of the industry's leading providers.

Views from the industry

Pauline Norstrom, worldwide head of marketing at Dedicated Micros and vice chairmen of the BSIA CCTV sector said the incidents had raised the level of awareness of CCTV on transport. Whereas customers had in the past been saying it was a good idea, it had now been put higher up the priority list. The failure of the bus camera highlighted a need for increased awareness of regular maintenance. It also threw the spotlight on the possibilities of intelligent video search and retrieval with fast indexing by date and time.

"There is a lot of work we have to do as an industry to raise awareness of the need to maintain systems," she said. "We have lived with the IRA so we may have become complacent. The Spanish industry really responded by putting cameras on trains. Here the urgency is not as profound."

Richard Law, MD of Baxall, which this year celebrates 30 years in business, said, like others, he was impressed by the quality and the speed with which police were able to track people.

He said 7/7 had an effect on sales in Italy where the authorities wanted to be seen to be doing something better. It had also been a factor in the company getting business in China and had created interest from the Australian government.

Surge of interest

Matt Coulson, security products sales manager at TAC Satchwell, security and building control specialists, confirmed a surge of interest. He said the industry was dominated by analogue cameras but his company was providing ways to bridge the analogue-digital gap by gradual upgrading without any big outlay on entirely new systems. "7/7 has given security groups a good reason to increase budgets", he said.

Ian Ellis of Siemens Building Technologies, said SBT were responsible for some of the CCTV on London's transport network and in the wake of the bombings police had praised the company for the speed of its DVR search and retrieval which had made it easier for them to locate images.

Also working with The London Underground and BR is CBC who have seen an increased call for upgrades. Said Binit Shah, marketing manager: "We quickly saw the repercussions after two or three months with increased enquiries for easier retrieval systems with more storage and much better images. The enquiries are for replacing both cameras and recorders.” He thought about 30 per cent of users were still using VCRs.

Tom Reeve of the CCTV User Group said systems covering the transport networks were originally designed to record trips and falls by passengers "and not terrorism" so there was a fundamental reason to look at upgrading in the wake of the 7/7 attacks.

Installer sees more demand

Terry Fisher, proprietor of NSI Gold installer, Fisher Alarms, which has installations stretching from Yorkshire to Kent, said they had noticed a big increase in customer demand for CCTV, access control and gates as a result of the terrorism threat.

"This started after 9/11 in 2001 and this demand has continued until now."

Johnny Allia, Honeywell's HSCE managing director said terrorism had highlighted the importance of video verification. "It is so important for manufacturers to prove to the market that an alarm is a real alarm," he said.

Steve Gorski, UK MD of Axis Systems, provider of IP technology, said "Obviously with the continuing threat there is a lot of interest in cameras on trains and buses throughout Europe."

The company is a major supplier to the subway and commuter train system in Stockholm, where Axis 225FD network cameras are being installed to protect travellers. Covering 80 stations it is the biggest installation of its type ever undertaken in Sweden and includes intelligent surveillance. Cameras are programmed to sense movements such as people moving on to the track, and will send an alarm. He sees facial recognition systems, dependent on mega pixel cameras, being used on transport networks within two years.

Analogue tape reviewed

Rob Healey, marketing and project manager, System Solutions Division, Panasonic UK said many systems involved in the subsequent police review of the images were still tape based. The company had worked with customers to review analogue tapes and supplied playback machines to the police investigating the attacks. Upgrading was along the line of extra cameras, changing from black and white to colour and replacing cameras that weren't performing, but he added that, while the interest was there, user budgets were a problem.

Peter Boriskin, access control and video systems manager of Tyco Fire & Security said: "People are starting to take a long hard look at transportation and the way they move people through their systems."

The problem was in time synchronising data and collating it from all the systems involved – CCTV, access control, panic systems, walkie talkies. "This is a difficult process and incredibly time consuming," he said. The solution was an integrated security management system where all security sources are joined so when an incident takes place, investigators can go directly to it with all sources synchronised.

Yash Patel, executive director, CCTV Europe at JVC Professional Europe Ltd, said although it took time for an incident such as this to directly translate into sales, users were definitely looking at upgrading, which provided opportunities for add-ons.

News helps operators

The ever present threat of terrorism can never now be far from the thoughts of security manufacturers and suppliers and is shaping the way products are developed.

At IFSEC, MAXxess were demonstrating an upgrade to their Axxess security management software. WebView allows operators to access on-screen news and weather broadcast channels as well as clearly see the current terrorist attack risk level. Said Wes Appleby, president of MAXxes Systems Inc: "News broadcasts become an important aid to responding to events. With better information, operators can respond more quickly and accurately."

And Neil Tilsley, deputy MD of Abloy Security, said that the continuing terrorism threat has meant that water company security has moved up the agenda for Abloy and Mul-T-Lock which were supplying high security solutions to UK reservoirs supplying drinking water.

And with that reference to water supplies, it seems that the words quoted from the consultant at the beginning of this piece are being heeded by the industry.