Health Takes Priority With Innovations in Access Control and Security
Melvin Braide, Content Writer for Swiftlane, looks at how the Covid-19 pandemic and modern-day health priorities have affected businesses access and security measures.
COVID-19 has expedited the shift in security we have been seeing throughout the past couple of years. With the emergence of cloud-based access solutions, new security capabilities can be integrated to keep us safer and our data more secure than previously thought possible. This is especially revolutionary for the access management industry, whose chief priority is the health and wellness of their users and occupants.
How is security changing to incorporate health and safety?
Today, the need for security transcends just physical safety. Cybersecurity is as essential in our homes and offices as physically securing buildings. But users often overlook the importance of good cyber practices. Luckily, physical and cybersecurity approaches are evolving to tackle
Remote Security Systems
Non-technical staff don’t have to worry about their cybersecurity if they switch to cloud-based systems. Cloud-based systems don’t require a steep learning curve, so anyone can use it easily. Second, you can supervise access activity in your building on the management dashboard using any web-enabled device.
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Cloud and remote systems also tower above traditional access control and security in terms of technical support. Using a conventional system with a building-stationed operating system, you would need a technician to come onsite to resolve any technical issue. Web-based systems offer remote technical support, and updates and maintenance are automatically available over the cloud.
Touchless Security Systems
Biometrics are possibly the most secure and convenient access control credentials imaginable. In fact, biometrics are projected to lead the access control market to $12.8 billion in 2025. Physical features like fingerprints, facial image, hand geometry, iris, and retina are some of the credentials used in biometrics access control. The other aspect of biometrics access analyzes natural tendencies such as behavioral characteristics including gait and signature.
However, the emergence of touchless biometric scanners took the technology to a whole new level. At the forefront is facial recognition technology. With face recognition, you gain access by looking at a face reader from a safe distance.
Innovations in Access Control Solutions
Face Recognition
Entirely touchless access systems are no longer just a concept. They are quickly becoming the new normal. And gone are the days when face recognition was powered by video surveillance cameras, which were simply unfit for the job and raised a handful of privacy concerns. Facial recognition technology now boasts more sophisticated algorithms and better accuracy.
Face recognition access control is one of the most secure means of building entry. Using a facial image as a credential eliminates breaches from key card cloning, loss, theft and tailgating. Unlike key cards, it is a natural means of identification, and so it is much more convenient than key cards and other legacy systems. Not only that, there is no need to touch a single surface, eliminating the spread of germs and disease.
Mobile Access Control
It is estimated that as many as 93% of the population uses a smartphone. Nowadays, you can use your smartphone to make in-store purchases, order a ride, and so much more, so it’s only natural that they are used as an access control credential.
Bluetooth, wireless, and cloud capabilities effortlessly integrate mobile credentials to serve a wide span of functions for so many industries. For building management, this translates to secure, remote opportunities that are able to increase safety by complying with social distancing guidance.
Visitor Management
Every building, whether a commercial facility or a multi tenant apartment complex welcomes visitors. From clients to deliveries, buildings have some visitor management system in place. COVID-19 has exacerbated the feasibility of most of these systems. Long gone is the pen and paper sign in sheet for the health and security of occupants and their guests.
Implementing or upgrading to a video intercom system is the safest solution to verify a visitor’s identity. The touchless technology promotes social distancing and eliminates the need to touch high use surfaces, which consequently are primarily where visitors and guests congregate. This technology is not only preventative, it’s the proactive solution that will guide the future of the industry.
Accountability and preparedness are key to a resilient building operation in the case of any emergency. Should, for example, a case of COVID-19 be detected in the building, video intercom and visitor management systems are the differentiator for an effective contact tracing effort.
Cloud-Based Systems
Cloud-based access control stores data on an offsite server, otherwise known as a cloud. This data is managed and protected by a security provider. Unlike on-premises systems, cloud-based access control offers seamless integration with mobile unlock, visitor management systems, face recognition, and video intercom.
The benefits that the cloud offers for building and facility security is parallel in its benefits to physical security as well. Flexibility of access at the discretion of the user is the most efficient and the healthiest way to avoid physical contact with anyone or any surface.
The Future of Healthy Buildings and Facilities
Security has had its evolutions in the past, but never has there been a transition to maximize on the physical health and wellness of the user. COVID-19 has transformed how we view access control, and buildings in every capacity are reaping the rewards.
