Convergence is no longer something to aim for – it is a strategic imperative. Today’s threats include hybrid attacks targeting both physical and cyber assets.  Advancements in technology and the integration of the Internet of Things into security operations and business processes have connected individual security devices and operational technology to the vast virtual ecosystem, expanding the potential attack surface of facilities and making traditional physical security and safety systems more vulnerable.

Providing reliable security for organizational assets presents numerous challenges for the security professional. Unfortunately, in many organizations, security is often controlled by separate authorities, resulting in a siloed approach to security. When organizational elements operate independently with minimal or no collaboration, the organization’s overall security is reduced.

This session will touch on the challenges of security convergence before providing an in-depth set of solutions and their associated long-term benefits, with a special emphasis on the recent Interagency Security Committee publication Security Convergence: Achieving Integrated Security: An Interagency Security Committee Best Practice.

In this session, experts from government agencies and the security industry will share the lessons learned in their efforts to modernize physical access control systems. The security industry fulfills a crucial role in cybersecurity and national security by providing the systems that manage credentials for federal workers and contractors and control access to federal facilities and computer networks; however, continuing use of low-assurance, legacy mechanisms leave significant risks unaddressed. This panel will examine ways agencies are seeking to modernize their physical access control systems with equipment and software meeting current federal standards and the related polices and funding mechanisms necessary to support these efforts.

In this session, procurement officials and industry representatives will discuss the latest federal contracting trends, policy developments, regulations and General Services Administration (GSA) contract changes related to security products and critically important to contracting personnel, end users and suppliers.

School districts have been subject to stand-alone access control security platforms for decades, primarily due to past budget, resource and management constraints. In order to capitalize on security operations that can manage risk across an entire school district, security directors now require open architecture, flexible and scalable security command and control operating systems that are a generation beyond current stand-alone door access and campus video solutions. They must “Think Legos” when establishing a district-wide security platform that can overcome the limitations of past industry offerings, by unifying systems and programs.

A unified platform delivers full-spectrum views of the entire district’s comprehensive security picture – for the fastest situational analysis and response by administrators, school resource officers and school-based law enforcement. It empowers automated response capabilities and “management by exception” for a solution that requires a fraction of the staff normally needed to monitor security. Seamless unification allows the system to accommodate new technology advances that bring together every district department and extend the life of the system for maximum benefit to the community and the taxpayers.

Physical goods and mail remain one of the largest security gaps facing government organizations and corporations alike. In a world where every person walking into a facility undergoes multiple levels of access control and security screening and every email is scanned for cyber threats, it is surprising how little effective screening is applied to mail and other physical deliveries entering facilities.

This session will cover new and emerging threats facing corporations and government organizations, including the growing convergence of physical and cyber threats, along with an overview of current and new security screening technologies making it easier than ever to effectively scan incoming items and detect potential threats to mitigate these risks.

Specific topics covered will include government and public-source data describing the type and prevalence of physical threats facing organizations; fundamentals of noninvasive imaging systems; new technologies and developments including X-ray, T-ray, infrared, radar, and related technologies; and real-world examples and practical applications.

This session will provide an overview of U.S.-China trade regulation and national security priorities and competitive drivers globally. Also discussed will be which security hardware and technology businesses are likely to be targeted for customs import halts in 2022 and other key issues of interest both to suppliers and purchasers of security products.

As federal, state and local governments are seeking to achieve greater efficiencies and capabilities through adoption of cloud-based services, the FedRAMP program offers opportunities to both suppliers and end users of cloud-based security applications.

Government agencies are looking to speed to the cloud just like the private sector. This presentation will explain the value threat modeling can give to government entities in making its way there securely.

This session will provide an update on that latest NEXGEN TWIC, its implications as well as the new Transportation Security Agency’s new Qualified Technology List for cards and readers.

Adoption of body-worn camera systems has become widespread in local law enforcement agencies across the United States. As the benefits to public safety and agency accountability become increasingly apparent, state and federal law enforcement, as well as agencies outside traditional law enforcement, are increasingly interested in fielding such systems for a variety of purposes. This presentation will explore the growing number of relevant use cases, technology features and system configurations available.

This session will explore the requirements driving adoption of indoor gunshot detection systems, and how artificial intelligence-driven technology and systems integration can result in success, proven through real-world active shooter situations.

Figen Murray – mother of Martyn Hett, who was one of 22 people who died in the 2017 Manchester Arena attack – is the leading advocate for the “Protect Duty” legislation in the United Kingdom that would require the use of antiterrorism security measures at all venues with a capacity of more than 100 persons. Now known as Martyn’s law, this legislation is currently under consideration by the U.K government.

A string of recent events, including the November 2021 vehicular attack in Waukesha, Wisconsin, have made the need to address attacks on public spaces and venues open to the public and implement the right protective measures increasingly clear and urgent. This session will examine and standards specific to physical security, as well as guidance to cities and venue managers on mitigation measures. International perspectives and insight will be shared from the U.K campaign for Protect Duty legislation (known as Martyn’s Law) following the 2017 terrorist attack at Manchester Arena.

The U.S. government is in the process of updating its guidelines and best practices for threat, risk and vulnerability assessments, through agencies like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, along with a great deal of input on resilience and adaptation for many different kinds of agencies, installations and commercial enterprises.  This discussion touches on three different aspects of this ongoing process and highlights what some of the impacts that these updated measures will have inside and outside of government.

The U.S. government uses a wide array of standards and best practices which vary widely from agency to agency and from installation to installation and originating from different agencies such as the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies. This session will focus on the standards and best practices security measures recommended or that are overseen by DHS and approved directly or indirectly at individual locations by the Office of SAFETY Act Implementation.

Physical security and cybersecurity professionals often seek to provide a multilayered approach to safeguarding their companies, organizations, personnel, facilities, systems and reputations. Solutions are often complex and multi layered. This same model, combined with a sense of urgency, is required to support interoperable emergency communications.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, “Interoperability” is the ability of emergency response agencies to talk to one another via communication systems – to exchange voice and/or data with one another on demand, in real time, when needed and as authorized; however, a significant number of after action reports from various major incidents or events identify multiple instances where communications (voice, data, video) has completely failed, strained response operations or caused a significant breakdown in processes.

Understanding the whole emergency communications ecosystem is an essential first step to any daily activity (organizational mission), special event, first amendment activity, national special security event, DHS Special Event Assessment Rating rated events or natural/manmade disasters. Providing uninterrupted communications – operable, interoperable and continuity of communications, combined with a well thought out P.A.C.E. (primary, alternate, contingency and emergency) plan, is crucial to ensuring operational success.

Climate change impacts and risks are becoming increasingly complex and more difficult to manage as multiple climate hazards occur simultaneously, and multiple climatic and non-climatic risks, like terrorism, interact, resulting in compounding overall security risks cascading across different sectors. This session will explore emerging risks posed by climate change and offer ways forward to better anticipate these future security risks.

The recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and the accurate classification of people and vehicles have promised to eliminate false alarms that are frequently experienced in perimeter video surveillance systems. But is AI the silver bullet we have all been waiting for? And can we now enable real-time alerting without fear of false positives (nuisance alarms) or false negatives (missed events)?

This session will investigate the improvements that AI has made to video analytics and how they can be used to successfully provide real-time notifications of perimeter intrusion. We will also examine the reality of the “marketing claims” vs the true capabilities of the technology. Finally, we will discuss the best practices for designing and deploying a perimeter security solution that takes advantage of AI-trained classification while selecting the optimal camera type, layout and method of human engagement.

By leveraging data fusion and correlation, modern security command and control systems hosted on edge devices and servers can receive detections and tracks from a variety of sensors such as motion analytics, radars and fence, ground and subterranean sensors. Autonomous commanding of cameras and dispatching unmanned aerial systems and unmanned ground vehicles to go “inspect” the detected targets to automatically verify is key to efficient and cost-effective operation with minimal operator involvement. This robust approach also combines geospatial video analytics with artificial intelligence/deep learning and radar tracks to disambiguate the objects of interest.

Continuous validation of the confidence level of the system through robust ground truth regression testing can eliminate nearly all nuisance alarms while maintaining a very high detection rate. In addition, integration of the Android Team Awareness Kit is becoming a dramatic force multiplier by providing the common operational picture in the hands of government agents and security personnel.

Whether it’s to address fraud, terrorism, illicit narcotics, human trafficking or other crimes or threats, federal agencies are successfully using new technologies to boost the speed, capacity and accuracy of their investigative teams. These solutions supplement traditional methods by sifting through massive intelligence and open-source data volumes, uncovering hidden insights and relationships and generating new leads. Learn more about these technologies and how they may help your agency.

Threats associated with acts of terrorism or criminality are of great concern for utilities, commercial buildings, infrastructure sites and campuses of all kinds.  The assessment of threats and risks should be both very practical (establishing vulnerability and mitigation measures) and quantifiable. This session will look specifically at what data is actually available for professionals and end users to consider when setting guidelines for threat, risk and vulnerability assessments for specific sites in specific locations and how that data can be accessed and employed.

From Office of Management and Budget zero trust policy to increasing cybersecurity threats, how will biometrics and digital credentials be used in federal program in the future? In this session, panelists will discuss use cases, road maps, opportunities and challenges.

In this session, industry and government speakers will provide an update and overview of emerging polices that affect that affect organizations in the security ecosystem, from manufacturers to agencies to end users in critical infrastructure, including funding sources for infrastructure protection, new Buy America policies, cyber incident reporting requirements and others.