OSSA announces new camera cybersecurity specification, Alliance council

SAN RAMON, Calif.—The Open Security & Safety Alliance (OSSA), an industry body comprised of stakeholders from all facets of the security, safety and building automation space, announced two important developments as part of its mission to pave the road toward trustworthy and innovative security and safety solutions.

First, a new specification is now available to members that focuses on camera cybersecurity measures. OSSA also introduced a new App Developer Council designed to attract and involve app developers in the Alliance’s growing ecosystem of security and safety industry players.

The newest technical specification – the OSSA Camera Cyber Security Specification – contains definitions and guidelines regarding mandatory and optional security determinations for cameras. It is largely based on an existing standard by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), with an additional clear focus on the security market and OSSA philosophy by transparently dividing the roles and responsibilities between camera manufacturers, the operating system (OS) provider and the system-on-chip (SoC) vendor, in particular. The specification also prescribes responsibility changes in the event of individual OS modifications by camera manufacturers. The mandatory part of these guidelines will be used as input for the forthcoming OSSA certification framework. 

The OSSA-orchestrated ecosystem is designed to enhance trust, enable innovation beyond the limits of a single organization and fuel opportunity for industry stakeholders and customers. The backbone of this initiative is the Alliance’s first Technology Stack that prescribes the use of a common OS along with the first three OSSA Specifications:

1) OSSA Application Interface Specification (available to OSSA members)

2) OSSA Compliant Camera Definition Specification (available to the public)

3) NEW: OSSA Camera Cyber Security Specification (now available to OSSA members)

As software application developers are essential to the OSSA ecosystem, the Alliance in early 2021 created a new offering to enable these usually smaller companies to weigh-in and be introduced within the security and safety sphere. This is an important corridor to establish between the two groups as the open platform approach continues to flourish, and particularly Android-based apps become an integral part of customization and differentiation across the security and safety Internet of things (IoT).

The annual OSSA App Developer Council fee is affordable at $250 or $500 a year, depending on the size of the developer company. It provides benefits including heavy industry exposure, early access to finalized Alliance deliverables, and exclusive insight into the OSSA specification roadmap.

“Although our Alliance is young, I’m continually impressed by member agility and a firm commitment to remove barriers and move the mark for the industry to all rise together,” said Johan Jubbega, OSSA President. “We’re steadily delivering on that vision - members have not only embraced the OSSA philosophy but already have actual hardware available in the market and a digital app store to source from. This has led to a new and natural connection with the app developer community. We’re advocating for truly open ecosystems not only within our specific security and safety sectors, but also are now broadening to cross-collaborate with other industries and stakeholder groups. I am convinced that the best is yet to come.”