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Flydubai FZ1073: "The Cockpit Door Was Built for the Wrong Threat"
Flydubai flight FZ1073, Dubai to Tel Aviv, transmitted emergency and unlawful-interference codes, made a steep descent and diverted to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, after a reported fight in the cockpit. An unnamed passenger with no background in security or aviation neutralized the attacker with blows and fought him over the controls before another pilot reached the deck. Passengers also helped subdue him, and a doctor and a nurse on board gave first aid. The aircraft landed. The que
Freddie Bolton
15 hours ago4 min read
48,000 Lockdown Messages. 32 Active Shooter Ones
A notification that commits a building cannot be unsent. Once the speakers fire and the phones light, staff have already moved and responders are en route. The cost of a false alert is an evacuation that did not need to happen and trust that erodes the next time. That is why the decision itself stays manual even when everything around it is automated. Daily Notifications Prove the Paths Terry Swanson, president and chief executive of Singlewire Software, said in written comme
Paula Vettori
16 hours ago4 min read
Airports Have Become a Living Lab for AI Security
During the recent holidays, we traveled to visit my wife’s family in Romania, with a layover at Frankfurt Airport. While a transatlantic flight with a four-year-old can be challenging, for a security professional it was a fascinating journey. The amount of technology embedded in airports over the past few years is striking. Here are a few examples of how AI is being integrated into the most fundamental airport security tasks – watchlist alerting, sterile areas, baggage screen
Paul Epstein
2 days ago4 min read
Surveillance & CCTV
Proactive Security or Buzzword? Industry Pushes Perimeter-First Strategy into 2026
The push toward proactive, perimeter-focused security is gaining real traction going into 2026, especially across retail and multi-site environments. Instead of concentrating mainly on what happens inside the store, more operators are trying to detect and stop incidents before they even reach the door. As a journalist covering the security space, hundreds of companies have pitched me stories about how AI and analytics are transforming loss prevention. What stands out now is a
Sarah o'Neill
3 days ago2 min read
The VMS Market Is Shifting - Is Genetec Losing Strategic Ground?
The global video management systems VMS market is undergoing structural change. After years of consolidation around a relatively small group of dominant vendors, competitive differentiation is increasingly defined by openness, ecosystem breadth, cloud readiness and analytics integration. In this evolving landscape, long standing leaders are being reassessed as procurement priorities shift. Genetec built its reputation on unified security management. By combining IP video, acc
Paul Epstein
5 days ago3 min read
Security Teams Can See the Attack. They Still Cannot Close It the Same Way Twice
An attack that used to take a shift now lands inside the same hour, and the security team is still reading it across endpoint, firewall, identity, email and cloud tools that do not share a case. The detection exists. The repeatable response does not. That is the operational pressure on the floor at it-sa Expo & Congress in Nuremberg, 27-29 October 2026. The expo is the setting, not the event. Sophos is one of the companies on the floor. Illumio is another, in Hall 7, booth 7-
Paul Epstein
Oct 63 min read
Airport & Border Control
Paul Epstein
2 days ago
Paula Vettori
Sep 16
Emergency & Disaster Response
K-12 Security Still Struggles With Fragmentation Despite New ANSI Standard
Schools in the United States face the same challenge year after year: how to keep campuses safe without turning them into fortresses. From physical access controls to behavioral threat assessments, districts are juggling budget gaps, political scrutiny, and community pushback over the right mix of measures. Into this landscape, ASIS International has released a new ANSI-approved school security standard, billed as the first comprehensive framework for K-12 in the U.S. The sta
Paula Vettori
Sep 252 min read
From School Shootings to Stadium Safety: AI-Driven Screening Is the Next Layer of Physical Security
The new school year in the United States has opened with grim numbers: 47 shootings on K–12 grounds so far in 2025. That reality is driving districts to look for security measures that move faster than traditional checkpoints but avoid turning campuses into fortress-like spaces. Toronto-based Xtract One is one of the firms stepping into that demand. Its screening systems are designed to let students walk through carrying laptops and backpacks while software sorts routine item
Ellie Goldman
Sep 182 min read
Minneapolis School Shooting Highlights Critical Role of Tactical Maps for First Responders
The Minneapolis tragedy has once again pushed parents and educators to confront the ongoing crisis of school safety in America. During morning Mass, a 23-year-old gunman opened fire, killing two children and wounding more than 20 others before taking their own life. While many schools now look to sensors, cameras, and monitoring systems to detect threats, another piece of the puzzle is ensuring first responders have the right information the moment they arrive. Delays in loca
Sarah o'Neill
Aug 92 min read
Policing Tech
Offline-First Design And AI Workflows Reshape Body-Worn Camera Operations
As law enforcement agencies expand body-worn camera deployments, operational realities are shifting from simple video capture to resilient data management, interoperability, and post-incident automation. With high-volume footage, variable connectivity, and rising public transparency demands, system architecture increasingly determines whether evidence workflows remain reliable under stress. Modern deployments assume that connectivity will fail at critical moments. In distribu
Paula Vettori
Sep 273 min read
A Night with Drones and Digital Footprints: Two Policing Tech Stories That Hit Home
We've all seen the slick demos—hovering drones, predictive analytics, AI dashboards. But until you've watched one of those drones skip traffic jams and land a suspect in under two minutes, it’s all theory. I’ve seen two recent real-world deployments that remind security pros why relevance trumps hype. 1. The Drone That Lights the Way—Laredo, Texas In Laredo, I rode along as the local PD dispatched a BRINC drone before officers even draped on their jackets. Within 30–60 second
Freddie Bolton
Aug 62 min read
In the Field With Policing Tech: Two Systems That Actually Changed the Job
I’ve seen plenty of flashy demos in my career—slick PowerPoints about “next-gen policing” that never make it past the pilot phase. But every so often, you run into tech that actually shifts the ground under your feet. Two deployments I watched up close prove how different the outcomes can be when the tools work and when leadership backs them up. Case 1: License Plates That Talk Back A few years ago, I was working with a neighbourhood security committee in Fort Worth when they
Freddie Bolton
Jul 312 min read
HLS
Perimeter Security Balances Response Speed and False Alarms
# Perimeter Security Systems Balance Automated Response Against False Alarm Costs According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 94 to 98 percent of alarm calls turn out to be false, a reality ...
Paul Epstein
Sep 152 min read
Sensor Architecture Targets False Alarms in Active Threats
Security teams face severe operational tension when configuring active shooter protocols. They must balance the need for immediate emergency notifications against the operational cost of initiating false alerts. When deterrence measures tri...
Ellie Goldman
Sep 153 min read
Homeland Tech in Focus: Cell Towers, AI and Smart 911 Response
A fresh alarm has rung through U.S. government ranks: nearly two dozen FEMA IT personnel—including top CISOs—have been fired following a massive cybersecurity breach. The action was taken by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who blamed a failure to deploy basic safeguards like multifactor authentication. This stark reminder of systemic vulnerability throws homeland security tech providers into sharp relief—who they are, what they guard, and how they’re shaping resilience at the nati
Ellie Goldman
Sep 52 min read
48,000 Lockdown Messages. 32 Active Shooter Ones
A notification that commits a building cannot be unsent. Once the speakers fire and the phones light, staff have already moved and responders are en route. The cost of a false alert is an evacuation that did not need to happen and trust that erodes the next time. That is why the decision itself stays manual even when everything around it is automated. Daily Notifications Prove the Paths Terry Swanson, president and chief executive of Singlewire Software, said in written comme
Paula Vettori
16 hours ago4 min read
Opinion: Hospital Weapon Detection Is No Longer a Pilot Program
For years, hospitals talked about workplace violence in the abstract. Incident reports went up the chain, staff trainings were refreshed and signage was updated. But physical security at the front door often stayed the same. That is changing fast. Across the country, hospital security teams are being asked to solve a problem that can no longer be deferred or compartmentalized: how to prevent weapons from entering facilities that were never designed for controlled access. This
Marilyn Thaxton, North America Marketing Manager at CEIA USA
6 days ago4 min read
Gunshot Alerts Still Stall on the False-Alarm Problem
Security teams hesitate to automate an emergency notification because most alarms are not real. The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services has put the false-alarm share of alarm calls at 94 to 98 percent. That number sits behind the operational choice: wait for a person to confirm, and lose seconds, or push the alert and flood a guard force and a 911 center with noise. For a gunshot, those seconds are the response window. Confirmation Happ
Sarah o'Neill
Oct 23 min read
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