Secure Access Control in the Internet of Everything

In my role leading the development of Cisco’s IoT Systems and Software, I spend a fair amount of time speaking at industry events and talking with customers and partners. There is a lot of excitement about the Internet of Everything (IoE) – the intelligent connection of people, processes, data and things to the Internet – as it continues to take hold, bringing unprecedented economic opportunities to both the private and public sectors.

IoT Trends Impacting Security Requirements

With the Internet of Everything, the exploding number of devices and applications are creating more attack vectors for bad actors to exploit. As a result, security is a top priority. Cisco’s Connected Safety and Security portfolio is delivering important capabilities to help protect the networks, devices, applications, users and data that make up the Internet of Everything. Secure access control will be essential to providing the right level of protection that the Internet of Everything requires.

Physical security is about protecting people, property and critical infrastructure. Over the last decade, customer adoption of IP-based networked systems enabled increased scale, improved video quality and the convergence of previously isolated systems. Now, the market is in the midst of further transformation driven by integration with IoT sensors and advanced video analytics using distributed applications at the network edge. These new IoT-enabled physical security systems improve accuracy, responsiveness and automation supporting transformation of business processes.

Physical access control hardware technology will rapidly evolve with these trends. This includes new credential technologies along with hardware technologies for doors, readers and locks – many of them IP-capable and even wireless. Once connected to the network, physical access becomes another part of an IoE system. Though these are exciting developments, the writing on the wall is clear: physical access will play a key role in the IoE and, as a result, the IoE will disrupt access control.

Cisco Teams with Identiv

To support our IoE strategy, Cisco is teaming with Identiv for access control and identity management. Identiv brings significant experience and capabilities to the physical access control market, and has built up a reputation for open standards, high security and reliability. They use a single, standards-based, secure credential to deliver unified identity across physical and information assets – including securing buildings, PCs, networks, VPNs, mobility and cloud assets. Their customers include global government, education, retail, transportation and healthcare organizations. Importantly, Cisco selected Identiv because of their commitment and vision for the connected world and IoE. Our companies share a common vision that Physical Access becomes just another element in the Enterprise IoE.  Importantly, Identiv is focused on securing the IoE with strong, standards-based Identity. After all, identity is becoming the new security perimeter.

Our CPAM (Cisco Physical Access Manager) Access Control product is being shared with Identiv, who will launch it as a branded product, iPAM. Identiv will offer a new network-based PoE door controller and deliver their advanced uTrust TS door reader, supporting all common access credentials on the market and delivering support for legacy wiring and network connection. Identiv is committed to disrupting the traditional physical access market by offering a fully network-based solution that is easy to buy and use.

Cisco and Identiv are investing significantly to deliver this next-generation, networked physical access solution that interacts with other Cisco Connected Safety and Security solutions IoE elements, such Cisco Video Surveillance Manager (VSM), and Cisco VoIP telephony. Customers gain significantly enhanced value along with lower installation costs and complexity by using standards-based IP networks, leading to reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and improved ROI.

Cisco will resell iPAM and the other components of this access control solution as part of its physical security solution lineup and include SmartID credentials from the cloud-based Identiv idOnDemand service. Cisco and Identiv expect that iPAM, the door controller and readers will be available in late summer. In the months following the launch, Identiv plans to release updates to iPAM with new features and functionality.

Enhanced Capabilities in Next Release of Cisco’s Video Surveillance Manager

All of these capabilities come together to help Cisco delivery on our promise of a safely connected world. We’ll keep that momentum going with release 7.7 of our Video Surveillance Manager (VSM). Enhanced capabilities include forensic analysis within the Safety and Security Desktop (SASD) that speeds search through event-marked video across multiple time-synched cameras to resolve incidents rapidly. SASD’s current navigation timeline will be replaced with a more intuitive collection of easy-to-find navigation buttons and user-friendly workflows for creating clips and video archival search. Users will be able to select from de-warped views, including panoramic, quad and fisheye from 360-degree cameras.

VSM 7.7 will maximize storage efficiency by enabling recording video at lower bit rates and then automatically switching to high-quality video when motion activity or analytics occurs. The new Connected Edge Storage Enhancement feature will automatically copy video data from camera SD to central archives upon events such as motion or analytics as well.

Stay tuned for updates as Cisco continues to advance its Connected Safety and Security portfolio to deliver a comprehensive security strategy for IoE.