SECURE REMOTE VIDEO CONTROL

A European Defence Ministry

When you have remotely controlled cameras in operation you need to find a secure way of receiving information from the cameras and a secure way to control them without leaking information.

Security cameras were being used for the protection of military forces but as is often the case the cameras were located in insecure public areas and fed the vital imagery back to secure control rooms where operations staff and intelligence officers monitored the images for signs of wrong-doing.

This often involved the desire to pan, tilt or zoom (PTZ) the camera to take a close look at a suspected security event.

A simple networking configuration introduces vulnerabilities into the control system network; for example, can an attacker supply false imagery; use the network to mount a denial of service attack; launch malware; or even access the intelligence information?

Nexor was the first organisation to successfully deliver a secure solution that has been used “in theatre” that achieves the ability to operate through a single network operated from just one control room.

As well as the solution ensuring that the military forces were able to view CCTV video from unsecured environments and networks in a secure operation room, the operational impact was for greater efficiency as the monitoring and command functions were located in the same place.

The solution also “significantly” reduced costs for the Ministry as forces were able to monitor domains from one central location rather than several sites closer to the cameras.