Monitoring Matters

Not to distract the masses from any other topics that may be occupying their thoughts, but in the blog this week I really am going to talk about bread. There’s a new ransomware group making the rounds lately and if you’re wondering what they’ve done to be singled out among a sea of cyber ne’er-do-wells then I’d have to say, it’s probably their preferred form of payment. A group calling itself Hellcat has claimed to have compromised Schneider Electric, a French...

In the last stretch of this year’s election cycle the candidates are really burning up the trail, at least the parts of it not already on fire. That’s right in several states political violence rose to the level of arson as ballot boxes were set on fire in Oregon, Washington, and even Arizona recently. The good news is, sometimes we learn our lessons and there were cameras monitoring a few of those sites. In fact, a suspect is already in custody in the Arizona case, and I expect...

Anyone who would dare saunter up to me to complain about Christmas decorations going in the stores too early this year has never worked at a news desk in an election year. That’s right, every four years Santa delivers coal to a reporter’s inbox for 12-14 months straight. I cannot explain to anyone reading this the joy I feel knowing that I won’t be up all-night waiting for confirmation on results in local races, or God forbid, sitting at a campaign headquarters, or any of the...

I am opening my blog this week with an apology to my poor Editor, Cory Harris, whose coattails might be a little more damp than usual on my account. Good-natured Cory stood in for me during this year’s GSX conference in Florida, a show that was by all accounts productive and full of interesting new products, features, software, and partnerships. All well and good if you minded the weather. That’s right, the Security Systems News (SSN) team got chased out of Orlando by Hurricane Helene,...

If you’re reading this, I’m either just hitting the road or on my way back from VerkadaOne, a nice little preview of some security market tech before the larger show of GSX next week. I am interested in seeing the new products on offer too. If nothing else AI has made for a lot of interesting innovation in the security camera market as competitors scramble to have their seat at the table. Or maybe it will be more like the last one seated at a cakewalk? If you listen to Oracle co-founder...

With September breaking out onto the scene, fall is sure to become a reality soon, and that means all the lovely sights and sounds of the harvest, the turning of the leaves and, oh yeah, school shootings. That’s right if you thought this blog had been conspicuously quiet on that subject in recent months, you’d be correct, and for the least nefarious of reasons: school is out during the summer. So, imagine how disappointing it was to wake up to our first school shooting of the season...

I have not been watching the Democratic National Convention this week, as all my friends keep asking me. However, it occurred to me I ought to peek since I have a security blog to write this week. As a journalist I have something of the opposite reaction to election years as my peers. Where most of them are content to leave politics alone until elections make the rounds, I will have spent the past few years, and especially the previous few months absolutely inundated with political news, interviewing...

We’re somewhere around the halfway point for the fiscal year, at least for most companies, and the prognosis for the second quarter (Q2) couldn’t be more boring. That is to say, everyone seems to be doing the exact same thing and making the exact same reports. Everyone sold off part of their business, everyone has made “strategic acquisitions” that have been largely responsible for the positive balance sheets I’m seeing. That really seems to be…it? Every...

This week in the security world things fall apart, the center cannot hold, and the reason for that is because we fail to learn our lessons. Being a little less vague this week I’m touching on the two largest pieces of security news, both of which culminated in congressional hearings for responsible parties, for all the good it will do. First up is the aftermath of an assassination attempt last week that led to multiple inquiries on the methods and actions of the United States Secret Service....

I feel pretty drained by the 4th of July, but in a good way all things considered. What better way to celebrate our nation's independence than that most American form of entertainment, explosions. Speaking of things that are inherently and exclusively American in nature that I could not escape in the news cycle this week: ammunition vending machines. I cannot speak to how long this has been “a thing,” but I can tell you the concept of just such a machine was played...