Security technologies for water utility Infrastructures

The filed of security that many of us in the United States take for granted and do not necessarily ponder on. This important category in our daily lives has certainly witnessed a drastic modernization and restoration in the last couple of years. Although the field of security and security technologies in particular has affected many locations and buildings, protecting utility infrastructures is by far one of the most important facilities that it affects and protects. Has sped to the forefront of the debate. One of the most important infrastructures is water utilities.
The topic of water utility and how it gets into our taps after a long process of filtration and purification is a topic that affects us on a daily basis and affects everyday of our lives, however, it is a topic that the majority of us do not ponder about that much.
Believe it or not, the United States is currently the world leader when it comes to water consumption per capita. with nearly two thousand cubic meters utilized by every American on a yearly basis primarily for drinking along with a wide variety of others uses, from bathing to washing cars and watering lawns.
Nevertheless the water infrastructure is a weak and vulnerable point the many terrorists can easily target and create devastating results on the entire community. subsequent to the invasion of Afghanistan, numerous US military forces brought to light several manuals in terrorist training sites with how information and diagrams explaining how to attack drinking water systems in town centers.
After realizing this dangerous potential the government mandated the infrastructure suppliers to step up their security preparations. By the deployment and instigation of the Bioterrorism Act in about four years ago, the congress was able to mandate water utilities serving more than three thousand individuals to complete a vulnerability evaluation and put in place an emergency response plan that concentrates on deliberate assault of the water system infrastructure.

Securing the Flow of the water
providing service for more than two hundred thousand individuals in the community, the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission (SWSC) deals with a volume of more than thirty seven million gallons per day of water and more than sixty seven million gallons per day of wastewater treatment. And security is a dominant issue.
Subsequent to collecting the water from the Little River in the Western part of the state, water is then filtered and stored in a distribution reservoir at a near by mountain.
Supplying sufficient security posed a number of obstacles. Being in a hard-to-reach site, SWSC wanted remote surveillance, a number of different connections and a scalable system for future modification and development.
Due to the many obstacle of monitoring from a far site, SWSC started searching for a solution that would bridge the data overload gap and sort through data from security sources deployed for protection of such a big goal.
According to the information technologies manager for SWSC undoubtedly there has been more focus and concern in regards to protecting water facilities in a post-9/11 world. Due to the heightened level of concerns, they researched and carried out a new security system that would take advantage of the many technology enhancements over the last few years in improving the network, better convergence potential and camera images.

Modifiable operations
at last SWSC turned to project incorporator Affordable Monitoring Solution for a solution to the surveillance obstacle.
The convergence company recommended the open-standards-based intelligent Security Operations Center (iSOC) platform from DVTel. And indeed, the solution the commission was looking for was present in iSOC's capability to bring a number of security functions together into one, unified interface.
According to the Chief Operating Officer of DVTel, SWSC chose to create a homeland security-type deployment in a remote site, necessitating numerous connection technologies and authorizing a control center from a far location. These types of demands had to be met on budget and with excellent functionality and management.
Through utilizing the ability to use devices from numerous suppliers, the entire platform brings together data from a wide variety of surveillance devices; including video, audio, and access management in addition to various other interfaces.
As soon as the information is uploaded, the Latitude Network Video Management System (NVMS) hub sends the raw information to the proper software module, making intelligence actionable, as an alternative of a mass of disparate data.
The interface of NVMS is rules-based and built off distributed architecture that blends Microsoft's .NET along with open-source Linux in order to enable the system to be particularly modified to best suit end-user desires.
In addition to that, with iSOC's network-based protocols, SWSC had the ability to deploy several different methods of information transmission, as well as VSDL, copper phone lines, fiber-optic technology, LAN and wireless LAN to unite all the cameras covering the reservoir and surrounding access routs.
The interface deploys numbers motion and other sensory notifications, in addition to audio on a number of the cameras, so operators can directly speak to potential intruders. Without a doubt, iSOC incorporation with the intercom utility is an added advantage. Security personnel can interact in real time with any intruders and give warnings or simply make contact to let the intruder know they are currently being observed and recorded.
All of the observation work and utilization of the platform is conducted at an operations center which is located more than eight miles away from the distribution tank, with makes it a self-contained interface that needs no onsite personnel or direct human intervention. As soon as a security risk is sensed, the monitoring system notifies the security personnel, who then travel to the reservoir and examines the situation.
And despite the fact that the commission currently provides strong security to a major water quantity, there are copious features that SWSC can utilize in the future to take advantage of iSOC's systems.
The COO of DVTel also pointed out that the iSOC interfaces make it a lot easier to accommodate more cameras and expansion of intercom features. In addition to that, the new iSOC version now has seamless unification with highly developed, IP-based access management. In addition to that, there is a growing amount of sophisticated video analytics components that the commission could deploy as an attempt to improve surveillance and management of video and other incoming information.
All of these security technologies and more can be utilized and exploited to their fullest in order to help in making our water facilities a lot safer and secure for our communities. The integration and convergence of various security technologies is also a key factor in enhancing the standard of security products, their available features, and customer benefit and satisfaction. These, much needed, integrations and convergences will ultimately benefit the entire community through combating crime rates, illegal activities, security breaches, and possible attacks by potential terrorists.
By taking the time and the money to invest in these security technologies, companies and governmental institutions will actually be saving money in the long run since these utilities will eventually pay for their own price through preventing possible breaches that could cost the facility thousands of dollars not to mention the possibility of the loss of human life.