Latin America. To achieve technological development and advancement in 2021 in the security sector, it is necessary to look back and make an analysis of all the challenges we face.
Retrospective has the power to provide a context for future decision-making, which will help us to be understandable and allow us to be assertive in each step we take. While the COVID-19 pandemic had gripped Asia before the end of 2019, few would have predicted the huge impact it would have on the world throughout 2020. In a short period of time, our way of life, work practices and business operations had to take a different course. Travel restrictions, social distancing rules, increased hygiene requirements and pressure on health services all affected all businesses.
2020 was a year that presented us with constant challenges, both economic and operational, where we had to look for the best ways to guarantee business continuity and ensure the well-being of our team, however, we also saw various use cases for our technology and solutions emerge, in addition to new forms of hybrid work, ideas and ways to stay together that opened up an important opportunity for us in the digital world. However, given the panorama we are experiencing, we know that the challenges are not over. At Axis we are aware of today more than ever the technological advancement continues and, as we have seen in recent years, instead of foreshadowing the emergence of completely new technologies, the trends we see for 2021 are determined by how and why technologies are used, in addition to the implications associated with video solutions.
1. Trust as the first security trend
Previously we have placed the main emphasis on trust being one of the guiding axes of technological development, throughout the supply chain, but today this issue has become even more critical. There are many factors that contribute to keeping trust under more scrutiny, as customers and end users demand transparency about how the technology is used and how data, which is stored in surveillance, is managed. This, along with the need to maintain privacy, will be a key challenge. Renewed discussions about trust will directly impact how organizations across all sectors actively demonstrate why they are trustworthy. Due to its nature, the security sector will be even more forced to redouble its efforts in this area and ensure the correct use and development of technology to provide even more security and performance.
2. The world becomes horizontal
Recent years have seen applications and services largely designed for specific environments, whether server-based, cloud-based, or edge-based, all driven by the desire to achieve optimal performance, scalability, and flexibility, along with the benefits of accessing and using data anytime, anywhere.
Thus, 2021 will see a push towards horizontal integration between environments, as increasingly intelligent applications and services will be deployed in the three instances (server, cloud and edge) using the best capabilities of each, in order to improve the performance and efficiency of the solutions. For example, edge analysis on a surveillance camera will potentially send a message to an operator with an alert, the operator will then access the live video stream 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 reactive to proactive, manual to automated, while reducing bandwidth, power and costs.
3. Cybersecurity: the trend continues
The above trend is directly related to cybersecurity, as intelligent services will demand strong cybersecurity (a chain, after all, is only as strong as its weakest link) and the constant evolution of the threat landscape consolidates its relevance year after year. Due to the potential for high financial returns and disruption of critical infrastructure, new capabilities, tactics, and threats will continue to emerge that will require constant vigilance.
Artificial intelligence will be employed by cybercriminals as much as in any sector, which will strengthen their ability to find and exploit vulnerabilities. Deep fakes will become even more sophisticated and realistic, which could cast doubt on video surveillance evidence. As a result, further developments in methods for verifying content, devices, and applications will be required in order to maintain confidence in their authenticity. Advances in cybercrime will also extend to tried and true methods, such as phishing lures, that will be harder to detect. As a result, employees will be even more susceptible to these types of attacks and, as always, constant education and reminders of cybersecurity best practices will be needed.
Therefore, the move to zero-trust networks will be accelerated, where the security profile for each device and application is evaluated independently. Trust will be delivered through device-to-device and/or app-to-app communication via signed firmware, software updates, secure boot, encrypted data or video, and secure identity. It may seem like an indictment of the age we live in, but the only way to trust the safety of anything is to trust nothing.
4. The reality of Artificial Intelligence
We've been talking about the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for so long that some might question its validity as a trend. But with machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) now widely available in surveillance technology, the implications of their use will be a factor in 2021. Technological development has allowed us to have concrete examples of various use cases of AI in surveillance, but as we have seen in other sectors, the positive impact of AI can be offset by the attention paid to specific failures. Narratives tend to focus on the mistakes of automation, and this will no doubt be the case in the surveillance sector as well. However, this should not act as a deterrent and we should not lose sight of the potential positive use cases of machine learning and deep learning in surveillance. For example, using these capabilities in peripheral devices can help identify objects and reduce false alarms. As a result, security experts can move to a proactive, event-driven way of working, rather than continuous manual monitoring.
5. Low- and non-contact technologies come to the fore
The regulations, rules and consumption habits established during this year will become commonplace in 2021. The technology will support the way new social dynamics and health standards are monitored and enforced. As a result, the implementation of low- or no-contact technologies will increase, especially in areas such as access control. In addition, surveillance solutions with people counting capability will become the norm to ensure compliance with healthcare protocols around the world.
6. Reinventing sustainability
One concern during the pandemic has been the reduced focus on the environment and sustainability. Several major environmental incidents have brought these discussions to the forefront, and sustainability is expected to regain its position as a major focus area in 2021. At Axis we are aware of the relevance that this issue will take in product development, therefore, the materials used in production and their duration remain two of the areas of greatest impact.
While important steps have been taken to reduce the use of plastics and PVC in products and increase the level of use of recycled materials, all manufacturers can continue to innovate to decrease the carbon footprint. The life span of the products will also be a critical factor for customers' decision-making, as
it is much better for the environment (and the economy) to specify a high-quality product with a long anticipated shelf life, than one that requires replacement after a few years.
The constant of change
The events of 2020 alone demonstrated the risks we run in trying to predict what will happen the following year and not taking into account eventualities. However, we are confident that the trends described above are broad enough to be applied even in the context of a turbulent environment to respond to the needs of today and tomorrow. What will remain true is that periods of uncertainty underscore the importance of agility and an adaptive approach to problem solving, regardless of what the future holds.
* Article by Johan Paulsson, CTO at Axis Communications.
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