Surveillance cameras always help decrease safety concerns in public spaces. Right?

Think again!

Read on to find out how one Ivy League University discovered that lack of full control over surveillance devices can actually compromise privacy and increase vulnerability.

Explore how they managed to address this problem.

The Importance of Surveillance Devices in Educational Establishments

Contemporary educational institutions place a big emphasis on guaranteeing the physical safety of students, faculty and visitors. A large majority of schools, colleges and universities deploy surveillance cameras to ensure safety.

However, the operating and management challenges often compromise the increased security benefits provided by the video surveillance and increasing costs.

Do Surveillance Cameras Increase Security Risks?

If you are a member of the tech team at an educational institution, you won’t be surprised to hear that if not managed properly, having surveillance cameras can actually pose new security threats.

This is due to lapses in cyber security best practices, such as regular password rotation and constant firmware updates. Lack of control over surveillance devices increases vulnerability and compromises the privacy of students.

Ivy League University – The Challenge

An Ivy League University, has massively deployed video surveillance devices and access control throughout its campus to ensure safety to its students, staff and visitors. They have installed numerous different devices, in numerous locations throughout the university site.

The digital transformation from analog to IP-based devices has introduced new challenges, for example:

• the vulnerability of connected devices, due to the lack of visibility and control over their devices
• their ongoing maintenance, because of the lack of a single operational platform and standardized maintenance procedures
• the lack of automation in the IoT operations, resulting in extra manual work and ad-hoc management.

How did the University Address the Video Surveillance Problem?

The university understood that the shutdown of one or more devices could jeopardize the campus safety and data privacy, and sought a solution to manage the ongoing operations of these devices at scale.

They were fortunate enough to discover the solution offered by SecuriThings, the IT system for managing connected devices.

SecuriThings: The Solution to the University’s Surveillance Devices Issue

SecuriThings helped the university by bringing the power of automation to their IoT device management.

The university’s physical security team were now able to:

• access and control devices in real-time, minimizing camera downtime and ensuring optimal functioning of all devices
• standardize and centralize operational management of all devices, enabling compliance with privacy laws and increasing efficiency
• continuously monitor the health status of devices, allowing them to see devices that were reaching the end-of-life or malfunctioning
• implement a password policy, decreasing potential security threats

The benefits of using SecuriThings were immediately apparent to the technical security team at the university.