Specifically Speaking with Paul Rizk – ‘What’s better than designing security systems that save people’s lives and properties and protect national security’

YARMOUTH, Maine—For Paul Rizk, it’s all about designing systems that keep facilities and people safe and secure.

Rizk serves as president of Electronic Design Group (EDG), a technology consultancy and engineering firm geared to provide full design, solution architecture, project management and professional services, based out of the company’s U.S. headquarters in Palm Beach, Fla.

“As president, I have overall management responsibilities for all 11 offices, including the operations in Europe and the Middle East,” Rizk told SSN.

EDG was founded in 2009 and is managed by experts in the technology industry with more than 20 years of global experience.

“Besides our U.S. headquarters in Florida, EDG has offices across the globe in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East,” Rizk explained. “Our 200-plus senior industry experts are supporting government agencies and large corporation globally to design and implement the latest best practices and industry standards to keep their facilities safe and secure.”  

As part of Security Systems News’ monthly column Specifically Speaking, the following is an exclusive Q&A with Rizk:

SSN: What kinds of systems do you design/specify and what services does the company provide?

RIZK: We provide advisory and design services for complex high-tech smart cities and critical infrastructure assets including airports. Our capabilities include developing CONOPS [concepts of operations], security operating procedures, control and command centers, and designing all systems such as video surveillance, access control, PIDS [perimeter intrusion detection systems], HVM [hostile vehicle mitigation], advanced analytics, mobile tactical systems, radar solutions and C-UAS [counter-unmanned aircraft systems].

SSN: What vertical markets does the company specialize in? Any interesting projects that you can mention?

RIZK: We are very strong in government sectors, military bases, law enforcement and large commercial projects such as malls, hotels, hospitals, schools, and office towers.

SSN: How did you get started in security and designing/specifying?

RIZK: As an engineer by education, I always wanted to design stuff that could bring people around, and what’s better than designing security systems that save people’s lives and properties and protect national security. Providing a safe place for the public to work and enjoy life is an exciting exercise and a big responsibility at the same time, especially since you have to balance in your design between providing flexibility and freedom while managing the risk.

SSN: Can you talk about what new or emerging technologies you are seeing or specifying today?

RIZK: Well, AI for sure is bringing a whole new area of possibilities. While it has existed for many years now in few applications, now AI is being implemented in lot of systems in both physical and cybersecurity to automate and speed up the incident response. Video analytics has also gone a long way and can provide increased situational awareness for large applications.

SSN: What is your view on the industry moving forward?

RIZK: I believe we will see a couple of things further developing. First, automation and AI adoption will keep increasing, and the use of security systems will go beyond only security to provide data gathering, traffic information, marketing studies, client behavior analysis, customer service applications, etc.

Secondly, we will witness almost a complete merger between physical and cybersecurity as both go side by side. Almost all security systems now run over IP and are vulnerable to attacks, while also securing data centers and computer rooms will always need physical layers. A client is only secure when they have both areas well covered.