This paper is in association with a presentation given to the AWWA 2012 Water Security & Preparedness Conference held at St. Louis in September, 2012 and as titled above. The paper and presentation is in three parts: Perimeter Security, Sustainable Security Systems and New Security Technology
The first part relates to the importance of Perimeter Security in devising appropriate security measures to provide an adequate level of protection for a water or wastewater facility (in keeping with accepted Security Industry standards and practice), meet SVA (Security Vulnerability Assessment) recommendations, and further meet pending and future water security legislation and regulations, such as that being readied by the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) under the Water Security Act.
The second part of this paper concerns Sustainable Security Systems, encompassing the strides that have taken place in the last few years to provide “off-grid” power sources for security systems and equipment, particularly in the wireless video and video motion detection areas that form the backbone to virtually every perimeter security system being installed today.
Part three of this paper and presentation discusses the New Security Technology now available that permits perimeter security systems to be realized at water and wastewater facilities utilizing wireless concepts, stand-alone sustainable power sources, and security systems, particularly camera surveillance equipment with vastly improved features such as low power and low light requirements.
Part three also includes new Deterrent Technology, very applicable to water and wastewater facilities, as well as the latest Remote Monitoring Services covering virtually any surveillance system, and significantly reducing the cost and manpower requirements that would otherwise be required to meet 24/7 monitoring.
The Importance of Perimeter Security
Most SVA methodologies stress the need for Layered Security, where the intent is to provide a series of security layers that present a series of obstacles to an adversary attempting to access a specific area within a facility’s infrastructure. The more layers and difficulty, the longer it will take an adversary to reach their objective, and the more time local law enforcement have to neutralize the individuals before they can carry-out their goal whatever it might be.
However, a facility’s perimeter security is also its First Line of Defense. This is where any intrusion system will first indicate that the perimeter has been breached by unauthorized parties, and it is also the first point at which a planned response begins to take effect. Action cannot be taken to neutralize a situation, if no one is aware of the security breach.
Perimeter security is also considered very important within the requirements of the DHS (Department of Homeland Security), CSAT methodology and their corresponding Standards of Performance, as used in the CFATS regulations for the Chemical Industry. These same DHS standards are likely to be used under the proposed Water Security Act, and as already being applied by NERC for Energy Utilities.
The most important point related to Perimeter Security may well be that of the Deterrent Point.
The Security Industry for many years has successfully deployed what is often called the Deterrent Approach to security, where solid, well thought-out perimeter security measures can act as a deterrent to adversaries and criminals, in keeping with security industry accepted standards and practices, and induce such individuals to seek another target elsewhere, where security appears to be far less inhibitive.
Under the EPA mandated Water Industry SVA program, many security vulnerability assessments were carried-out under the RAM-W SVA methodology created by the Sandia National Laboratory section of the Department of Energy. Sandia does not recognize the Deterrent Approach in their principle of Detect, Delay, Respond, which can reduce the cost of securing a Water or Wastewater facility by very significant amounts.
The DHS do recognize the Deterrent Approach and employ the principle of Deter, Detect, Delay, Respond. Thus, it is possible with good perimeter security to adequately protect water, and wastewater facilities and systems, meet budget constraints in terms of cost, and meet both current and pending security legislation and regulations.
Download the full paper here: Sustainable Perimeter Security System Development For Today’s Water Infrastructure Environment
