Hard Work, Lots of Colour

There are several key differences between tradeshows in the United States and the United Kingdom. Spelling is one. But here on Day 1 at IFSEC, traffic at the show is a bit sparse. That could be why IFSEC is held four days straight.

Days 1 and 4 are for warm up and cool off, but the two days in between are serious business. There are also fire, and health and safety tradeshows collocated at the NEC Birmingham. Thousands of participants have made their way to the hall floors.

The first day of IFSEC was a great day for me as I have been able to visit with manufacturers and exhibitors without wading through the crowds. Today will be different with the torrent of attendees.

What I’ve noticed here today is that the show floor is smaller than last year, and booth sizes, in general, are smaller than those at ISC West or ASIS. The volume of business, however, is at a frenzied pace.

Pivot3 has introduced its vBank appliance, which addresses the growing influence of IT in video surveillance environments. This adds resources to support more virtual servers, solid state disk drives to extend storage performance across general business applications and bundles VMware vCenter Server technologies to simplify management.

SALTO Systems has released a number of access control systems at IFSEC, including the SALTO global electronic opening cylinder and an RFID designer lock that can be opened with a near-field communications-equipped smart phone.

I’m looking forward to learning more about security in the United Kingdom today, and how security is changing the lives of our neighbors on the other side of the Atlantic. It’s been an interesting tradeshow thus far, in fact, last night after dinner in the home town of Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon; I bumped into Ed Davis, co-founder and vice president of marketing with AFI.

I also met up with Tony Byerly and Felix Gonzalez of Stanley Convergent Security Systems who manage part of their U.S.-based business in the United Kingdom. It’s always good to see friendly faces from home. Home, of course, being the United States.

I’m looking forward to the events of the day and reporting more for tomorrow.

About the Author

Ralph C. Jensen is the Publisher/Editor in chief of Security Today magazine.

Featured

  • AI Is Now the Leading Cybersecurity Concern for Security, IT Leaders

    Arctic Wolf recently published findings from its State of Cybersecurity: 2025 Trends Report, offering insights from a global survey of more than 1,200 senior IT and cybersecurity decision-makers across 15 countries. Conducted by Sapio Research, the report captures the realities, risks, and readiness strategies shaping the modern security landscape. Read Now

  • Analysis of AI Tools Shows 85 Percent Have Been Breached

    AI tools are becoming essential to modern work, but their fast, unmonitored adoption is creating a new kind of security risk. Recent surveys reveal a clear trend – employees are rapidly adopting consumer-facing AI tools without employer approval, IT oversight, or any clear security policies. According to Cybernews Business Digital Index, nearly 90% of analyzed AI tools have been exposed to data breaches, putting businesses at severe risk. Read Now

  • Software Vulnerabilities Surged 61 Percent in 2024, According to New Report

    Action1, a provider of autonomous endpoint management (AEM) solutions, today released its 2025 Software Vulnerability Ratings Report, revealing a 61% year-over-year surge in discovered software vulnerabilities and a 96% spike in exploited vulnerabilities throughout 2024, amid an increasingly aggressive threat landscape. Read Now

  • Motorola Solutions Named Official Safety Technology Supplier of the Ryder Cup through 2027

    Motorola Solutions has today been named the Official Safety Technology Supplier of the 2025 and 2027 Ryder Cup, professional golf’s renowned biennial team competition between the United States and Europe. Read Now

  • Evolving Cybersecurity Strategies

    Organizations are increasingly turning their attention to human-focused security approaches, as two out of three (68%) cybersecurity incidents involve people. Threat actors are shifting from targeting networks and systems to hacking humans via social engineering methods, living off human errors as their most prevalent attack vector. Whether manipulated or not, human cyber behavior is leveraged to gain backdoor access into systems. This mainly results from a lack of employee training and awareness about evolving attack techniques employed by malign actors. Read Now

New Products

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge.

  • PE80 Series

    PE80 Series by SARGENT / ED4000/PED5000 Series by Corbin Russwin

    ASSA ABLOY, a global leader in access solutions, has announced the launch of two next generation exit devices from long-standing leaders in the premium exit device market: the PE80 Series by SARGENT and the PED4000/PED5000 Series by Corbin Russwin. These new exit devices boast industry-first features that are specifically designed to provide enhanced safety, security and convenience, setting new standards for exit solutions. The SARGENT PE80 and Corbin Russwin PED4000/PED5000 Series exit devices are engineered to meet the ever-evolving needs of modern buildings. Featuring the high strength, security and durability that ASSA ABLOY is known for, the new exit devices deliver several innovative, industry-first features in addition to elegant design finishes for every opening.