As lockdowns start to ease in many countries, so the tentative return to work begins, leaving people understandably concerned about how safe a space an office will be in the middle of a global pandemic. There is likely to be an increase in the amount of technology used to monitor employees. From thermal cameras taking your temperature when you enter the building to apps or wearables to alert you if you get too close to colleagues, work could soon have the feel of the Minority Report movie.
The concept of networking in office buildings evolving from a competitive selling feature to a necessary fourth utility alongside electricity, gas, and water has developed in the last 10 years. The need to enable more instrumentation and control points inside buildings requires wired and wireless networks to connect them back to the services that orchestrate their overall operations. The fourth utility has to span from basement to roof, and from carpeted floors to the parking garage. Cabling infrastructure that is not future-ready will require replacement or augmentation to accommodate the inevitable changes to the attached active electronics over the cabling’s 20-year useful life.
Critical internet-connected smart building devices used in countless commercial and industrial properties, have been found to be vulnerable to a new malicious attack, according to cybersecurity researcher Bertin Bervis.The vulnerability exploits the properties in the building automation protocol (Bacnet) which enables technicians and engineers performing monitoring, setup changes and remote control of a wide range of key smart systems that impact temperature control, and other monitoring systems. Bervis analyzed several building automation devices with built-in web applications for remote monitoring and control.
Axis has announced the release of its latest whitepaper, Smart Buildings & Smart Cities Security, a detailed study of challenges for smart buildings.
The best smart city initiatives in the world need to “talk” to buildings and local spaces in order to be fully efficient. To simplify, if the vision of smart cities is an operating system for urban areas, it doesn’t make much sense if each building in the city has its own OS, none of which can talk to each other.
