Security market status and development trends in 2000.
Security market status and development trends in 2000.
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Minaev, Technical Director of the Alternative-M holding, spoke at the seminar with an analysis of the Russian market of technical security equipment in 1999-2000.
We are publishing the main fragments of this speech.
The number one topic on the Russian security systems market, as we see at this exhibition, is increasingly Home Security, in other words, home security systems. The number of implemented installations of this type of systems is constantly increasing year after year not only in Russia but also in the world. This was confirmed by the industry fair SiTech-99, which took place in late October 1999 in Berlin. Another very important topic is the problem of ensuring the security of information technologies. Systems in this area are developed for corporate users, as well as for small firms and private customers. At the present stage, the issue of standardization for this type of system has become acute. Here, FAPSI and the State Technical Commission should have their say, which is far from the last word. For industrial and commercial enterprises, various firms, not only mechanical products and systems are becoming increasingly important, but also complex security «control» systems.
The current exhibition very clearly confirms that from demonstrating interesting, advanced samples of technical means offered by foreign manufacturers, domestic developers are actively moving to the production of a qualitatively new generation of security systems.
Today, the issues of system security of companies, new technical and organizational solutions for its provision, data protection and information security, actions in case of crises and disasters are being discussed more and more widely. More and more managers understand that the problem of security essentially integrates many technological processes of enterprises. Thus, we are observing the development of new trends in the Russian market of security systems.
Among the specific areas in the field of production and use of security equipment and security technology that, in our opinion, will be actively developed in 2000, we would like to note the following. First of all, with the complication of the criminal situation in Russia and the increase in cases of terrorism, the demand for technical means of combating terrorism and sabotage has increased, and, as forecasts show, will increase. In particular, much attention has recently been paid to the creation and procurement of effective monitoring systems:
• devices for express analysis of traces of a substance potentially suitable for committing sabotage and terrorist acts;
• devices for biological monitoring of various groups of psychotropic drugs:
• means of express analysis of general toxicity in controlled areas:
• equipment for reliable and prompt identification of hazardous substances based on modern physical and chemical methods and databases:
• means of monitoring various physical fields and fields of impact on the human body.
Such a priority area as the creation of new models of robotic devices for the detection and neutralization of explosives is actively developing. In this case, special importance should be given to the development of relatively inexpensive, easy-to-control robots.
The sphere associated with the creation of a new type of analytical systems «artificial nose», synthesizing the latest achievements of chemical analysis, is rapidly developing. Their wide application, in addition to solving the problems of combating terrorism, is associated with the intensification of the fight against illegal drug trafficking, which has taken on the character of a national catastrophe in Russia.
There are a number of specially protected facilities in Russia (nuclear power plants, nuclear fuel storage facilities, especially toxic and explosive substances), as well as a rapidly expanding system of expensive private buildings. Modern perimeter security systems, intelligent monitoring, and access control (including biometric identification) are among the effective means of ensuring the security of these facilities. In particular, this concerns the field of complex image recognition (fingerprint, speech, etc.), where Russian specialists have breakthrough ideas and technologies that have been brought to hardware and software implementation. By the way, foreign specialists recognize this and are actively looking for mutually beneficial cooperation. The market for these systems is rapidly developing, and new technological ideas could be actively in demand by the Russian consumer, who is alarmed by the low detection rate of thefts and robberies (it makes up 60-70% of their total number).
Recently, satellite radio navigation methods have been actively introduced in Russia to ensure the safety of individuals, material assets, and property. In this regard, much attention is paid to the creation of systems:
•dispatching of motor vehicles in cities:
•control over the movement of vehicles or cargo on long routes;
•detection and search for stolen vehicles (this is one of the most serious criminal problems).
The main tasks in relation to Russian reality, the solution of which will significantly expand the market for the use of space navigation systems, are the lack of affordable peripheral equipment and the complexity of organizing stable and sufficiently cheap communications with mobile objects over relatively large territories.
Given the rapid development of the Russian market, which is not supported in legal terms, means of covert removal of confidential information are widely, and often illegally, used. This has caused effective countermeasures. Namely, with a large number of highly qualified specialists unemployed in other areas (programmers, mathematicians, employees of former special services), new methods and means of coding and cryptography are actively developing in solving problems of ensuring information security, in particular. steganography, systems for protecting speech information in communication channels, etc.
Constructive cooperation with foreign colleagues in the field of creating information security systems, and more broadly, security systems in general, is seen in the following areas:
• joint creation of modern security system models using advanced foreign technologies, on the one hand, and trained specialists, a developed and unburdened production base and relatively cheap labor in Russia, on the other:
• taking advantage of the capabilities of foreign manufacturers of security systems, promoting joint products, as well as promising and at the same time fairly cheap models of Russian-made equipment in third countries.
The following aspect cannot be ignored.
After a number of major fires, including those involving the loss of many lives (for example, in the Samara Region Department of Internal Affairs), thermal imagers have found much greater application. They are widely used to check power lines to detect externally invisible defects. Given the significant deterioration of both residential and office buildings in Russia, the need for portable and relatively inexpensive thermal imagers will increase in the near future.
It is gratifying to note the increasingly dominant trend of the Russian security equipment market — to offer consumers the fullest possible range of products and services in the security industry: from legal and technical consultations, sales of the latest technology to the development and creation of exclusive technical equipment for customers.
A few words about the organization of the Forum. This year, its participants and visitors have been provided with more advanced conditions for business contacts and discussion of various security issues. Of course, there are not yet the same opportunities as those offered by exhibition organizers abroad. But we will learn quickly. I think that next year there will be real-time access to various computer databases related to security, and other innovations.