Standards, Privacy and Education Dominate Cybersecurity Discussion at SecurityNext
The need for standards, the role of privacy and educational resources are some of the topics Hikvision senior director of cybersecurity Chuck Davis and other speakers addressed at the February SecurityNext conference, a technology conference sponsored by Security Systems News.
Davis joined Christine Lanning, co-founder and president, Integrated Security Technologies, Brad Eck, community management program owner, Americas, Milestone, and Pierre Bourgeix, President, ESICONVERGENT, in an educational session called “Securing Profits in the Age of Convergence and Compliance,” at SecurityNext. The session followed the keynote address on the first day of the two-day conference and drew a large and engaged audience. Davis’ remarks focused on cybersecurity during the session.
Noting that the security industry is lacking in cybersecurity standards, Davis advised looking to the computing industry for guidance on shaping cybersecurity standards for video surveillance.
However, he noted that standards only go so far.
“Compliance with standards, laws and regulations is so important, however, compliance does not equal security. You can be compliant with local and federal requirements—or industry and vertical market requirements—and still not be secure. It’s a process,” Davis said. “Cybersecurity means assessing and accepting risk and doing what you can to manage and mitigate risks—segmenting networks, monitoring systems and networks, and quickly patching vulnerabilities,” he added.
Calling privacy and cybersecurity “huge topics in the video surveillance industry now,” Davis predicted privacy will become increasingly important as regulations are promulgated. He also said the connection between privacy and cybersecurity is often misunderstood or overlooked. “You can’t have true security without privacy or true privacy without security. They work hand-in-hand. We need to look at privacy leaders, at regulations like GDPR and the new California privacy legislation, which will be very impactful for our industry,” Davis said.
Regarding cybersecurity education, Davis said it has to be ongoing, and called on video surveillance manufacturers to help. “We should all be lifelong learners at home and at work. And video surveillance manufacturers can lead the way, creating information and educational resources and courses for integrators, end customers and others in the security industry.”
Hikvision encourages its integrators and others in the security industry to take advantage of its many cybersecurity resources including the Hikvision Cybersecurity Center.