Perimeter security offers the first line of defence against unauthorized access, intrusion, and potentially disastrous impacts in sensitive installationslike airports, national borders, and industrial or commercial spaces.
However, the task isn’t getting any easier.
Intrusion attempts are becoming more sophisticated. The use of sophisticated technologies like drones isincreasing. Also, physically manning spaces like airports, national borders, large industrial areas, etc. need many personnel around the clock for adequate security. Add to that the risks of human error.
Many security solutions use modern technology and provide alarms to make security more immediate. That still leaves room for improvement though.Traditional perimeter security solutions such as CCTV cameras, fences, etc. are struggling to cope as threat actors become more sophisticated. These solutions are becoming easier to manipulate, and most importantly, are mostly reactive rather than proactive.
These solutions need to become more sensitive to their environment and ensure that any change does not trigger false alarms. Alarms triggered due to environmental events such as heavy rains or animals etc. lead to security personnel wasting time exploring the cause of these triggers.
Many security systems do not offer proactive and immediate insights into security events. The lack of insights also impedes the capacity to pinpoint the exact point of intrusion and limits the ability to make perimeter security stronger and more impenetrable.
Sensitive perimeters such as airports, defence areas, national borders, industrial spaces such as oil and storage and refineries, power plants, rail and metro yards, or areas that host high-value critical assets need better perimeter security.They also need to improve response times to events and reduce the number of false alarms, while making security across the entire perimeter foolproof.
Perimeter security needs to bring together a host of technology solutions to elevate detection and deterrence, especially in sensitive spaces. These systems have to provide current, accurate, and actionable intelligence including the exact location of the intrusion. These technologies also need to span a large area and ensure that they can detect intrusion attempts across large, unmanned areas and extreme weather conditions.
These systems should be easily able to identify when someone climbs, cuts, or lifts the fence fabric. They should be additionally able to detect intrusion attempts such as:
Fool-proof perimeter security systems need to complement security with operational intelligence to counter threats with real-time data while providing centimetre-level accuracy. These systems have to ensure that are immune to EMI and RFI and can integrate seamlessly into the security ecosystem.
Perimeter intrusion-detection systems need to be powered by technologies such as OFC and LiDAR, for example, employ technologies such as power fencing, and capably leverage signal processing algorithms combined with AI to capably discriminate between real intrusions, nuisance alarms, and other factors of perimeter disturbance.
Well-designed OFC-based Intrusion Detection Systems, for example, can improve perimeter security as they use Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) controllers that can be placed up to 10km from the site, using an insensitive OFC cable.
These systems not only have to detect intrusion attempts and deliver detection accuracy, but they also have to provide actionable information to isolate problems, on the physical network.
Perimeter control systems need to be cohesively integrated to deliver intrusion information promptly to the control rooms and QRT. Elevating security and operational resilience needs perimeter security systems to provide SDK support to integrate with third-party VMS/Command and control centres.
These systems also offer the capability to integrate most third-party systems into the security ecosystem to bolster security by detecting and classifying events accurately and enabling further verification from visual sensors.
These systems must not have any power requirements, must be immune to extreme weather, and work on user-defined configurable zones that are seamlessly connected to deliver real-time information and alarms that boost security. User-friendly software interfaces that enable ease of monitoring are also essential to make perimeter security foolproof.
It can be easy to take a one-size-fits-all approach to perimeter security. However, not all spaces that need perimeter security are the same. Spaces like power plants, oil and gas industries, civil infrastructure, military areas, airports, and seaports all have specific and differing security needs.
National borders and military areas, for example, will need perimeter security solutions that not only need fence protection but also need advanced security from intrusion detection systems to provide superior coverage of terrestrial borders with centimetre-level accuracy. These systems have to protect the perimeter and detect any underground tunnelling activity, protection against drones, etc.
Perimeter security systems, as such need to be designed adequately and employ the right hardware complemented with the right software. Solution providers need to understand the nuances of the industry and understand the specific challenges for robust and fool-proof perimeter security.
Perimeter security can only become fool-proof when the entire ecosystem functions harmoniously to prevent intrusions and elevate the intelligence posture.
This can only happen when the entire perimeter security ecosystem is appropriately integrated and all the different solutions and all their virtual and physical components used to meet different security needs are seamlessly integrated.
These modern perimeter security systems use a multi-layered approach. As such, these modern systems must be connected to an equally modern central monitoring system. Central monitoring systems equipped with Deep Learning and discernment algorithms capably analyze inputs from the sensors and provide actionable alerts that enable faster and well-informed critical decisions.
Perimeter security needs customized, well-designed, robust, advanced, and comprehensive solutions. Improving detection accuracy, reducing false alarms, improving information delivery, and delivering intelligent insights ensure that perimeters are safe and impenetrable.
Connect with Athena to develop a clear security strategy to secure your perimeters today!