Future security systems will become faster and more reliable as the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies becomes more prominent in physical security applications and other digital-native tools.
Until recently, many individuals, including business leaders and security industry experts, have been comfortable relying on legacy systems for their protection and digital guarding needs. However, this is fast becoming a dying trend as the world around them and us is rapidly changing, and so are our security needs.
Advancements in AI-powered technology, along with Machine Learning (ML) applications, cloud computing, and data storage infrastructure, are helping to reshape the direction of the physical security industry, not only for professionals and leading experts but for ordinary citizens and business owners as well.
What Is Physical Security?
In previous years, many referred to physical security as “guards and gates.” While the expression makes sense, modern threats have become much more sophisticated and complex, requiring a more advanced set of security measures.
Nowadays, physical security consists of various elements and protection measures carefully designed to counter potential threats, minimize the misuse of systems and resources, mitigate unauthorized access to facilities, and restrict unlawful access to online portals or digital systems.
Due to the sudden increase in unpremeditated acts of cybercrime and threats, physical security now stretches beyond the legacy “guard and gate” approach. It encompasses a range of new measures, including:
Security Configuration: Understanding where a property or building’s weak points help to provide the necessary protection in these areas. This can include the installation of security cameras, lighting, alarms, and other visual security measures.
Digital Security and Access Control: Implementing the necessary digital and security infrastructure ensures the appropriate use of facilities and mitigates the risk of unauthorized access to certain rooms or building sites.
Personnel Training: Companies are now investing in the training and development of security programs for their employees, helping equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge to handle both physical security and digital emergencies.
Infrastructure and Perimeter Protection: More traditional security measures include using physical equipment such as sensors, cameras, tripwire alarms, and other security measures needed to protect a home, office, or building.
Digital Infrastructure Protection: Another important facet of physical security is using cyber security protocols that provide around-the-clock network connectivity and digital infrastructure protection.
Environment and Public Safety Protection: Rapid expansion of metropolitan areas due to the increase in local populations has meant that local law enforcement agencies must have more comprehensive physical security measures in place.
For instance, the use of license plate data and recognition software (LPR) is reportedly used by 93 percent of American police departments in cities with more than one million residents.
Current State Of Physical Security In The U.S.
Physical security is now more important than ever before, protecting private residences, office buildings, and other public spaces against unreasonable threats, such as acts of terrorism, thieves, and unauthorized intruders.
As the security landscape in the U.S. changes and new threats are identified within the public and private sectors, physical security technology is seeing rapid modernization alongside the development of artificial intelligence applications and machine learning tools.
The security landscape is changing, and possible threats have become much more sophisticated in recent years. Roughly 69 percent of security experts and industry leaders believe that current and new threats will become “more complex” to determine in the near future.
These occurrences call for the need for better-performing security tools and digital solutions that are best suited to identify, monitor, or detect threats.
Further industry analysis indicates that cloud-based software and tools are becoming increasingly common among physical security providers, with roughly seven in ten experts claiming to increase their spending on physical security systems and applications in the coming years.
Similarly, migration efforts towards cloud-based infrastructure are witnessing strong support. Seventy percent of security leaders plan to transition to cloud technology within the next 12 months, and another 96 percent aim to complete this transition within the next 18 months.
The nature of threats has changed in the last several years. They have moved beyond physical threats and instead taken up a digital presence, which has meant that industry leaders are continuously seeking to harness AI capabilities to establish better security scalability efforts and physical cloud-based solutions.
AI Revolutionizing Physical Security
A growing consensus shows that more security experts and business leaders are planning to invest in AI adoption that will help revolutionize the physical security industry, enabling faster, more reliable scalability, real-time security altering, and overall improved AI compatibility.
Optimized security intelligence operations
Intelligence systems, both physical and digital, will assist with improving security operations, enabling users to have faster and more reliable infrastructure management protocols before, during, and after possible threat assessments.
Artificial intelligence will equip teams with the logical technology to analyze environments more effectively, monitor suspicious activity, and improve data privacy efforts.
Security intelligence optimization can help make offices safer, as security teams can now monitor foot traffic throughout peak traffic periods. Other systems, such as video camera surveillance and access control systems, can work interchangeably within a singular digital system to identify and track any known or perhaps unknown threats.
Better physical security starts with the command centers, and the integration of artificial intelligence will enable these central systems to become data-driven powerhouses that deliver reliable outcomes within reliable response times.
More collaborative security infrastructure
Current legacy security systems are built on a silo-based blueprint that sees various moving parts work interchangeably but function independently. This approach limits the scalability of a security network and further creates friction between the moving parts that are not equipped with the modifications to work co-dependently.
Instead, efforts are being made to help physical security systems become more collaborative, seeing the removal of any physical or digital barriers and instead leveraging artificial intelligence and other machine learning capabilities to promote a unified security system.
These enhancements are crucial for the physical performance of security systems and for adapting various security protocols as threats become more complex to resolve.
Unified intelligence systems provide a more sophisticated digital interface that can be used by multiple individuals simultaneously. Additionally, adoption efforts would ensure that systems become more effective; instead of focusing on one possible threat, systems can now monitor and analyze multiple situations simultaneously.
The collaboration between physical security and artificial intelligence brings a better opportunity for mobile protection, giving individuals better access to a wider range of tools and limiting potential barriers that may be present should a threat arise.
Focus on cloud-based security protocols
Multiple security experts believe that future threats will become more complex to analyze and that having the necessary tools will enable them to react more effectively while having better security commands.
AI adoption will most likely increase the need for cloud-based technologies such as cloud computing, cloud-sharing applications, and on-demand data transfers.
Though these applications already exist within various other industries and sectors – finance, business healthcare, and physical security — physical security might begin to see broader use in the coming years as AI features become a more common and affordable solution.
Cloud-based technology will enable personnel and other users to respond more flexibly. This would mean that teams can now share information more efficiently while using AI-powered natural language processing to combine multi-touch control operations.
Interactions will be faster and more streamlined, and the need for physical hardware will begin to wane as digital tools become more practical. Finding the correct information or sharing large quantities of data will help security officers, investigative teams, and experts analyze possible threats or vulnerabilities within remote working environments.
Intelligent facial and audio recognition
Misleading and often damaging AI-generated content has rapidly spread across the Internet and social media platforms, further dividing individuals and enabling the spread of misinformation.
While it’s possible to identify AI-generated images, videos, and some text, recognizing whether audio clips have been digitally created has become an immense problem for many officials.
In January 2024, an audio clip of U.S. President Joe Biden was identified as being artificially generated, following an incident in which the fake voice of President Biden was used to tell voters to skip the New Hampshire primaries altogether.
These sorts of incidents are becoming increasingly commonplace. However, for each type of AI-generated clone or piece of media being developed, new technology to identify these deepfakes is following closely on its heels.
The use of AI in physical security can provide teams with an additional set of eyes and ears, enabling them to quickly identify and verify whether an online profile has been artificially created.
Along with these efforts, we could see the use of AI technology to assist physical security personnel with quicker facial and audio recognition applications. This would become both a protection tool and equip them with the ability to work through vast amounts of available data more efficiently.
These types of tools can already identify profiles or accounts created for malicious purposes. Software integration would give security teams better access control, limiting the potential for bad actors to slip through the back door.
Rapid security clearance and reidentification
A major pain point for security clearance teams is the effective identification of individuals. While identification and clearance standards have improved over the years, many teams continue to experience significant issues regarding individual clearance, their level of safety risk, and conducting reidentification should it be deemed necessary.
Artificial intelligence monitoring is making it easier, and faster for specific security teams and government agencies to screen and clear individuals within public spaces or at any ports of entry.
For instance, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been experimenting with facial recognition technology at various airports nationwide since 2019. The more than 50,000 TSA agents working across 430 local airports see roughly 8 million passengers passing through checkpoints each week.
Using facial recognition technology, TSA agents and local law enforcement can screen passengers faster, eliminating time-consuming rituals at airports and creating a more stress-free travel experience for passengers.
According to a New York Times article, several major airline carriers, along with government and aviation agencies, have started investing in using facial recognition technology to oversee the clearance and identification of travelers.
By using biometric technology, security personnel are creating an additional safety net for those they are protecting. More importantly, they have the opportunity to identify individuals who may be deemed high risk or require reidentification for security clearance.
Aerial and ground-based surveillance systems
To some extent, “guards and gates” security features could receive a much-needed upgrade when artificial intelligence becomes more widely available in physical security.
Aerial and ground-based surveillance is already taking off in many parts of the world, despite many still believing it to be science fiction.
Ground security personnel are continuously leveraging the use of drone technology as a way to give them a bird’s eye view of their surroundings. Drones are more than cameras in the sky. With artificial intelligence tools, drones have become data-capturing machines that can rapidly deploy and collect data on any object or person.
Drone technology is far beyond the conventional use many think it to be. Government agencies have been tapping drone technology for several decades already, using it to have the upper hand against their biggest rivals and threats.
On the ground, however, similar technology is being developed and deployed, which helps to minimize the use of humans in high-risk environments or situations. Robots can be deployed in a desired location, analyze the surroundings, and immediately report back to the command center.
When powered with AI software, robot technology can help provide ground security personnel with real-time developments, safety inspections, and security analysis. It can also be used as an extra pair of ears and eyes in situations where human lives may be at risk, such as measuring threat levels or detecting any harmful substances that may be present.
Real-time situational analysis
Another potential use of artificial intelligence in physical security is providing personnel with real-time updates on events or potential security threats they may encounter.
This technology is already being deployed within organizations’ IT departments, where professionals can analyze and monitor employee equipment to identify potential threats or where malicious actors may be slipping undetected.
Similarly, using this technology in a real-world setting gives security teams and professionals the ability to monitor a house, office building, or public space and have up-to-date real-time analysis of any developments taking place or if anyone may be in direct danger.
Situational analysis can also be used in events where individuals may already be in danger. Using available sources, security personnel can tap their data sources to identify any victims or their adversaries. Being more informed will make it easier for ground personnel to make better decisions and take calculated risks.
Why Physical Security Experts Need To Invest In AI Adoption
Our security needs are constantly changing, and as we begin to enter the hyper-digitized era, having the proper digital technology to aid in protecting and guarding individuals, information, and data will take a more prominent role in the coming years.
Many business leaders have already reported increasing their annual budgets for physical security to protect themselves, their employees, and their property against physical threats.
In fact, roughly 32 percent of organizational leaders have reported having encountered at least some sort of property theft on company property in the last 12 months, while another 26 percent reported experiencing a high level of malicious property damage.
Combining both the digital and physical components will ensure that individuals, organizational leaders, and security experts have the following:
Flexible and Mobile Security Surveillance: AI technology can provide nonstop digital monitoring, minimizing the need for repetitive mundane tasks and allowing professionals to focus on more important security protocols.
Computerized Security Intelligence: Instead of having to search through countless databases to identify individuals or provide clearance, technology can now assist with more effective surveillance and reidentification.
Autonomous Threat Detection: Deploying critical applications will enable more autonomous threat detection within public spaces, helping to promote safer environments for all individuals.
Improved Data Sharing: Teams can notify one another about a potential threat or any individual who may be a possible threat to public citizens or an organization. This will help them communicate with law enforcement agencies more effectively, minimizing the potential for any bad actor to slip through the cracks.
Leveraging Software-as-a-Service: Instead of relying on outdated legacy software, security experts can now have on-the-ground SaaS technology to assist with creating more efficient workspaces and providing them with advanced intelligence at any given time.
Final Thoughts
Although it’s taken some time, the use of artificial intelligence in physical security software and applications is steadily helping to reshape how security professionals understand their weak points and how to counter possible threats that may be launched against them or any of those they protect.
Using artificial intelligence will become a game-changer for the industry, enabling more intelligent and more reliable security systems to take shape within existing security silos. Removing legacy systems and minimizing friction between individual moving parts will provide a more efficient process for security teams.AI
Looking towards the future, we will most likely see more comprehensive use of AI applications in physical security. While these advancements may not be visible to the naked eye, those behind the scenes can gaze upon a completely different viewpoint concerning our safety and protection.
Featured Image Credit: Photo by Michelangelo Buonarroti; Pexels
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