The death of security?
03 May 2011
That the security industry is one of the most successful sectors of the electronics industry over the past decade is no surprise, and events over the last week have provided ample demonstrations as to why this is. Firstly, allow me to wave my little plastic Union Flag, given compliments of a British daily paper.
I feel justified in mentioning this as it was clearly no more a British event than an Olympics is a Chinese event – or Greek, or Australian or who ever the host is. The wedding between Catherine and William was apparently watched at some point by over two billion people – nearly a third of the planet’s population – although where that oft quoted number has come from I find hard to imagine.
The reason for waving the flag is not because I am by nature a hard-line Royalist (although they do make a lovely couple!), but because the event passed without disruption or major incident. Given the amount of organisation going into the event to make sure what was meant to happen did happen, it may seem odd to concentrate on what didn’t happen, yet such is the nature of modern society that I think this is a major achievement. There is currently an increased risk of terrorist attack in the UK from isolated and extreme elements of the Irish Republican movement. While this was hoped to be a thing of the past it appears that, for a handful, the concessions given with a view to living together in harmony are too great, and the threat of terrorist activity therefore hangs over the region once more. This, apparently, is considered by British authorities a greater threat than that from Muslim fundamentalists.
However, that situation may be reversed given yesterday’s news from Pakistan about the death of Osama Bin Laden. Everyone will have read about this and formed their own opinions about what may emerge as good or bad about this, but while it is hoped that this will lead to a fragmentation and weakening of al-Qaeda in the long-term, it also seems likely that it may make some people who are already driven by hate even more angry and dangerous.
The role of technology in providing security is now a vital one. While there will always be a human element in the security world – whether it be the infiltrating ‘spook’ risking his life or the shopping mall security guard looking out for petty thieves – the electronics industry is designing and building the main weapons in identifying, monitoring and minimising the main threats to society.
However, a third event from last week proves that we don’t have all the solutions and this will always be an ongoing battle. I wrote about the breach of Sony Playstation’s online security last week in our sister newsletter EPD (Sony’s security is no game), so I won’t go into it again, but in terms of potentially disruptive crime then this could be amongst the biggest. Given that it is now nearly two weeks and there have not been any major reports of credit card abuse, then it could be hoped that this was done for fun rather than profit, but the fact remains that the perpetrators have not been found and the seriousness of their crime should be looked at in terms of its potential rather than its actual effects.
Whether it is hardware or software, I don’t think the death of bin Laden will stop the security sector being anything other than good business for the electronics industry for the foreseeable future.
Contact Details and Archive...
Most Viewed Articles...