In our latest webinar, Geir Teigo from Aspelin Ramm and Svein H. Dahle from Arexa joined Hildur, CEO of Defigo, to discuss building security and filling today’s and the future’s expectations and demands.
This article summarizes the answers of Geir and Svein for each of the six questions.
For the full webinar in Norwegian, click here.
Which security measures are property firms actually implementing?
Geir - While access control and alarm systems that were there 15 years ago are still the most commonly used, there is a big shift in demand towards flexibility, user-friendliness and smart functions like motion sensors.
Users are commonly requesting to be able to use their mobile phones and apps for access.
There are also many renters who are asking for Bluetooth technology in the buildings, but the developers feel that this is not very easy to achieve at this stage.
Svein - Security should be seamless, it should be comfortable and there should be as little resistance as possible.
There is a large demand for keyless access, either with a phone or biometrics. But 2 factor access can be a challenge. Either you use your card,phone or face recognition, which then needs to be combined with a code.
This is not always easy to do in the real world, so the industry is working on finding good solutions so that it's not only just some lines in a feature list but something that users can use in their daily lives.
What are the biggest security threats today, and are there new threats that have shown up in the past few years?
Geir- The users want to have easier use of their buildings. Routines can be sloppy. For instance, doors are being held open more than what the builders planned for and it can leave the buildings open to more threats.
Svein- A new threat is the use of drones. They can be used for anything from spying, smuggling or deliveries, to monitoring prohibited areas. So we get a lot of questions about eliminating the drone threat, which is its own specialty field that needs integrating with the rest of the building security.
As systems become safer, does this cause the user friendliness go down, or do they go hand in hand?
Geir- Buildings go under the FG rules. The laws behind FG are a bit behind when it comes to technological developments. What is secure enough to get into your bank via an app on your phone is not secure enough to get into an office building at Alnabru. It’s strange that it cannot be done more easily.
For users of a building, they just want to get through the door, but for us in the backroom running the systems, the systems are easier now which therefore increases the security in the building. The systems used to be by engineers for engineers, but now they are by engineers for consumers.
The engineers have made access control systems that even the layman can deal with without scratching their heads too much. I would say that this has increased the security in the buildings. System providers have focused on user friendliness in their systems so it is easier for everyone.
Svein- User friendliness is the top focus, as well as being future proof and innovative. It all goes together.
Generally speaking, the user friendliness of the systems have become much better and more intuitive, but the amount of systems on the doors have got a lot worse, and this means that the renters or builders do not know who to contact when things go wrong.
In the end, though, for the end user, the user friendliness has become better, but getting the buildings to work as expected has become worse.
Is the real estate business talking about cyber security?
Svein - Definitely. As a provider, if we deliver a server locally or have a cloud based solution, there is a whole set of requirements for what we must deliver about those we cooperate with and their IT security. We have to trust that everyone knows what they are doing, and that it is on track.
Geir - Before, we used to have all system servers in house and put more emphasis on gateways and firewalls. Now we are connecting through the cloud that communicates maybe straight to the controller in the building.
The same goes for access control, it might talk to a server at our offices, but the access from home has been delegated to the system provider.Then it’s the system provider that routes the traffic to our technical network that is inside the firewall.
I feel we have delegated a part of the responsibility for cyber security to the providers themselves, where before we had to take full responsibility.
It is a lot easier to run and operate things through the cloud.
How is the development short term? Is it getting more costly by using cloud based solutions?
Geir - I don’t feel that is a driving factor of cost. Of course it can be a bit more expensive, but it is not what drives the cost.
Svein- Security is costly. The more stuff you put in there, the more costly it becomes. We are now seeing a much bigger focus on re-usability and Life Cycle Cost (LCC).
This means delivering quality things that have a long lifetime, where we don't have to change components when things are being upgraded in the hardware.This is very important for the life cycle of a building. And if you portion it out over 15-20 years, the cost isn't that great.
Have there been any developments in terms of security and sustainability? When you think security, has there also been a focus on sustainability there?
Geir - A lot of it is on the quality of the components. For LCC we are planning for 60 years for a building, and the access control system might just last 15 years. So we need to change systems many times during the building's life.
But we are seeing that where people have done a good installation of the door systems, we are able to reuse it. So we can deduct maybe 40k per door,maybe even 60k when we are changing doors because we are able to use the components and wires again.
Svein - What we are experiencing a lot more than before is combination buildings. Now we can have buildings that have both industry, offices and apartments. We need solutions to reflect these.
We have everything from people going to work, people coming home, shopping at the store and we need to make this as easy as possible and we are getting more and more good systems there.
To learn more about access control with Defigo, contact our sales team.
