Axis: Technological trends that will affect the security sector in 2021

Events in recent months have changed our way of life, work practices and business operations. Axis discusses in this article what the trends will be for this year in terms of safety, how and why technology and associated implications will be used.

It's helpful to look back first, when you look forward: backspection has a wonderful way of providing context for the observation activity of the future. And when you look back in the last year, a useless activity could be to try to predict the future.

While the COVID-19 pandemic had taken hold in Asia before the end of 2019, few would have predicted the enormous impact it would have on the whole world along 2020. In a short space of time, our way of life, work practices and business operations turned upside down. Travel restrictions, the rules of social estating, increased hygiene requirements and pressure on health services affected the health sector.

In Axis Communications we've seen, the impact it has had on our own business and workforce - with the health and safety of employees at the forefront -, we also saw new use cases emerge for technology and security solutions, in addition to new ways of working, that will continue until the 2021 and beyond.

However, technological advancement continues and, as we've seen in recent years, rather than announcing the emergence of completely new technologies, the trends we see for 2021 are made up of how and why technologies are used, and the associated implications.

Trust as a priority

There are many factors that help maintain confidence and the technology sector is now under scrutiny more than ever. Customers and end users are demanding transparency around how technology is used and how data is managed, especially with increased surveillance. This, along with the need to maintain privacy, will be a key challenge.

Renewing confidence discussions will have a direct impact on how organizations in all sectors actively demonstrate why they are trustworthy. Because of its nature, the security sector will be under even greater pressure to double its efforts in this area.

The world moves horizontally

In recent years, applications and services have been largely designed for specific environments, either server-based, cloud or end. Driven by a desire for performance, optimal scalability and flexibility, along with the benefits of accessing and using data anytime, anywhere, next year you'll see the impetus for horizontal integration between environments.

Increasingly intelligent applications and services will be deployed on all three instances - server, cloud and extreme- employing the best capabilities of each, improving the performance and efficiency of the solution. For example, analytics at the end in a surveillance camera will potentially send a message to an operator with an alert, the operator will then access live video feed through a cloud-based app to verify and respond.

This shift to a 'horizontal' approach will increase the speed and accuracy of security and surveillance, moving from a reactive to a proactive approach, manual and automated, while reducing bandwidth, energy and cost.

Cybersecurity

This horizontal integration will only increase the attention paid to robust cybersecurity - a chain, After all, it's just as strong as its weakest link- and the constant evolution of the threat landscape cimientaes its relevance year after year.
Due to the possibility of high financial benefits and the discontinuion of essential infrastructure, new capabilities will continue to emerge, tactics and threats that will require constant vigilance.

Artificial Intelligence will be employed by cybercriminals as much as in any other sector, strengthening their ability to find and exploit vulnerabilities.

Deep counterfeits will become even more sophisticated and realistic, what might call into question video surveillance tests. As a result, further developing methods will be needed to verify the content, devices and apps to maintain confidence in their authenticity.

Advances in cybercrime will also extend to proven and real-world methods, that will be harder to detect. As a result, employees will be even more susceptible to such attacks and will need to be, as always, constant education and reminders of cybersecurity best practices.

Traditionally, cybersecurity has been based on a 'perimeter' model, where the network is protected by a single wall, hopefully impenetrable, made up of firewalls, VPNs/VLANs, air-gaps, software-defined networks and other technologies. But this model is challenged, and a single gap can result in the entire network being compromised.

So, the move to zero-trust networks will be accelerated, independently assessing the security profile of each device and app. Trust will be delivered through device-to-device and/or application-to-application communication using signed firmware, software updates, secure start, encrypted data/video and secure identity. It may seem like an accusation from the time we live, but the only way to trust the safety of something is to trust nothing.

The reality of AI

There has been talk of AI for so long that some might question its validity as a trend. But with machine learning (Ml) and learning, now widely available in surveillance technology, the implications of its use will be a factor in 2021.

There are now concrete examples of several cases of AI use in surveillance, but as seen in other sectors (For example, autonomous vehicle accidents) the positive impact of AI can be overcome by the attention paid to specific failures. Narratives tend to focus on automation mistakes, and this will certainly also be the case in the surveillance sector.

However, this should not act as a deterrent and there should be no loss of sight of the positive cases of potential use of machine learning and deep learning in surveillance. For example, using these capabilities on edge devices can help identify objects and reduce false positives. As a result, security experts can move on to a proactive, event-based way of working, instead of continuous manual surveillance.

Technologies of little or no contact

Regulations, standards and consumption habits established during this year will be common in 2021. Technology will support the way they are monitored and enforced, driven by hygiene concerns and social estating.

As a result, implementing technologies of little or no contact, especially in areas such as access control, Increase. In addition, surveillance solutions with counting capacity will become the norm, to ensure compliance with social estating rules.

Reimagine sustainability

One of the concerns during the pandemic has been that attention to the environment and sustainability has been reduced. Several major environmental incidents have put these discussions at the forefront, and it is expected that in 2021 sustainability regain its position as the main area of concern.

The materials used in the products and their duration remain two of the most impactful areas in which the surveillance sector can boost environmental benefits. While important steps have been taken to reduce the use of plastics and PVC in products and increase the level of use of recycled and recyclable materials, more progress can be made.

In addition to the materials used in the products, the duration of them will be a critical factor in customer decision-making. It's much better for the environment, and for the economy, specify a high-quality product with a long expected shelf life, that one that needs to be replaced after a few years.

It is clear that predictions should be taken in a small amount, and the events of 2020 demonstrated on their own the risks of trying to accurately predict future events. However, the trends described above are, Believe, broad enough to be applied even in the context of a turbulent environment.

What will remain true is that periods of uncertainty underscore the need for agility and an open approach to problem solving, whatever the future.

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