NEC Australia has announced a new whitepaper that explains how advanced recognition systems can deliver a safer and more secure future for Australia and the Asia Pacific.
Advanced recognition systems are set to play an increasingly important role as governments and enterprises respond to three major technological forces that are redefining the rules of business, cybersecurity, and public safety. These include the confluence of the physical and cyber realms, growing use of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) within smart cities, and massive deployments of Internet of Things devices.
Advanced Recognition Systems: The New Paradigm in Asia-Pacific, a new whitepaper from consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, helps technology and business leaders make sense of these disruptive trends though a balanced analysis of biometric applications today and in the future.
The whitepaper, which was commissioned by NEC, offers insights into how organisations in banking, retail, law enforcement and border control across Australia and the Asia Pacific can harness advanced recognition systems to enable smarter societies, a better customer experience, as well as enhancing cybersecurity and public safety.
Biometrics is already augmenting PIN and password based identity and authentication. Advanced recognition systems make biometrics a business enabler by incorporating three core elements: people, places and patterns. NEC has adopted this industry-leading approach as the foundation of its biometrics portfolio.
NEC Australia’s main mission is to help government agencies and businesses serve and protect Australian people, whether they’re at the border, on the street or in crowded venues where public safety is a high priority. An advanced recognition system creates trusted intelligence by ensuring the customer can accurately match the right person’s identity and deliver that information to the right people in real-time.
The Places element addresses the impact on public safety caused by a vanishing distinction between physical security and cyber security. Encryption presents a complex challenge for society, enabling more privacy for people but also anonymity and business opportunities for harmful groups, such as terrorists, cybercriminals, and nation-state threat actors. The file-encrypting WannaCry ransomware offered a reminder of the challenge in May after infecting 300,000 computers worldwide, among them systems that several UK hospitals depended on for patient care.
“Protecting digital and physical systems from diverse threats is a top priority for global businesses. Cyber security and physical security are two entities that are starting to come together and both cyber and physical security should not be looked at in isolation,” Frost and Sullivan research analyst Audrey William said.
The combined approach embraces the use of multimodal biometrics, or biometric systems that can use multiple biometric indicators such as fingerprints, voice and facial characteristics for identification and authentication.
The third core element of advanced recognition systems is rooted in patterns, and represents the ability to reinforce physical and cyber security with data analytics and AI. This means being capable of gathering and reporting data, but also analysing gathered intelligence to predict public safety threats, alert responders in real-time, and identify potential risks in high-traffic venues.
While IoT security often poses cybersecurity challenges, enterprise-grade sensors that NEC has deployed in smart cities such as Auckland, New Zealand, enable the analysis of traffic and pedestrian flows to improve public safety and urban planning.
“We predict that 8.4 billion IoT devices will be connected worldwide by the end of this year, and our conservative estimate for 2020 is that more than 20 billion devices will be deployed. As the use of biometrics extends into broader commercial applications, an approach that incorporates people, places and patterns may become the very fabric of future smart ecosystems,” said Frost and Sullivan research analyst Audrey William.
Andy Hurt, NEC Australia’s Director of Sales and Solutions said: “NEC is investing substantially in new technology to safeguard against integrated cyber-physical attacks. Our advanced recognition systems are at the forefront of biometrics internationally and they’re giving our customers the tools to make security a business enabler rather than a hindrance.”
NEC has carried out large-scale advanced recognition system deployments with border control, law enforcement, and crowd control internationally and in Australia, including the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, South Australia Police and NT Police.. These deployments offer customers combined capabilities across biometrics and video analytics to visualise human behaviour, detect individuals of interest, safeguard restricted premises, and translate data into insights in real-time to support informed decisions.
About NEC Australia
NEC Australia is a leading technology company, delivering a complete portfolio of ICT solutions and services to large enterprise, small business and government organisations. We deliver innovative solutions to help customers gain greater business value from their technology investments.
NEC Australia specialises in information and communications technology solutions and services in multi-vendor environments. Solutions and services include: IT applications and solutions development, unified communications, complex communications solutions, network solutions, display solutions, biometrics, research and development services, systems integration and professional, technical and managed services. For more information, visit NEC Australia at au.nec.com
