International. UL, a global security sciences company, officially announced a strategic collaboration with Viakoo to mitigate the operational and cyber hygiene issues commonly found in physical security systems.
Together, UL and Viakoo will explore opportunities to provide services and best practices to help businesses maintain compliant physical security systems that are resilient to cyber threats throughout their lifetime.
Over the past 10 years, the physical security industry has undergone rapid transformation with the introduction of IP-based systems, multiple forms of cybersecurity threats, and increased reliance on evidence produced by video surveillance. As a result, a security system that was shown to be configured and working properly in the facility can quickly stop working, leading to more frequent service calls, lack of video evidence, and access control failures. In addition, hackers often attack security systems and require continuous assessment of vulnerabilities for effective cyber hygiene.
UL and Viakoo are teaming up to help develop solutions to solve these critical challenges and strengthen safety. UL will leverage its deep technical expertise around the performance, reliability, interoperability, and cyber protection of physical security products and systems to provide certification services and promote methods to improve cyber hygiene for IoT application systems. Viakoo also brings a wealth of knowledge to the alliance, with more than 650 million hours of service guarantee data in physical security systems, digital twin IoT technology and expertise in IoT systems cyber hygiene.
"The relationship with Viakoo, a unique SaaS provider in the physical security space, coupled with UL's security domain expertise and compliance knowledge, has the potential to help end users manage their growing connected technology infrastructure more efficiently, while reducing the overall risk of critical system failure," said Neil Lakomiak, UL's director of business development and innovation.
Bud Broomhead, CEO of Viakoo, said: "UL shares our vision to ensure that investments in physical security provide the security for which they were designed. We are honored to collaborate with a global leader in security to deliver meaningful compliance and analytical solutions to the market."
