Managing Director's blog

“Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.” - Plato

I spent a very enjoyable evening with one of our clients who has been raising funds for St John’s Hospice, in St John’s Wood, Marylebone. 

St John’s Hospice gives extraordinary palliative care, free of charge, for over 2,000 patients and families each year facing many life-threatening illnesses.

There were eight slots in which to sponsor two of our client’s entries in the Great River Race on 15^th September; where the highest bidders would be given the opportunity to put their logo on the side of one of the boats.  I’m pleased to say that HAE entered a bid and were one of the top eight.  We are now looking forward to seeing our logo on the boat and to cheering the team along. 

This is such a good cause and is local to the area, and it will make such a massive difference to the families that St John’s Hospice look after each year.  Their kindness and care should be an inspiration to us all.

Robert De’Antiquis

Lenel Custom Solutions workshop- an engineer abroad

Our PES manager, Izak Potgieter travelled to Rochester in the USA to undertake a course in Lenel Custom Solutions work shop. Check out his blog below- Lenel Custom Solutions Workshop…. An engineer abroad!!!

Lenel Custom Solutions workshop – an engineer abroad

In the last couple of months, since being appointed as PES manager, I have increasingly had to deal with an escalation in complexity and sheer amount of Data Exchanges. With some new projects I have also had to do integration into 3^rd party software and hardware using DataConduIT.

With this in mind I asked to be sent to the annual Lenel Custom Solutions Workshop at the Lenel Headquarters in Rochester NY- which was definitely a challenging experience!

This workshop covered all of the following fields:

·         Database Architecture and links

This sector provided me with some additional insights into the layout of the data in the databases, and as well as supplementary information in regards to the database tables and relevant SQL scripts, links and triggers.

·         Data Exchange.

In the course we did several types of data exports and imports. We did hands on work in class and I definitely learned some new techniques regarding complex Data Exchanges. These will definitely save me a lot of time in the future and also will result in increasingly stable exchanges for more complex projects.

·         Custom Reports

With the use of Crystal Reports, it is possible to write reports that will cover the specific need for any client. With the use of existing templates from Onguard it is a simple case of changing it to fit requirements. This is a massive time saver and increases the simplicity of using the system.

·         DataConduIT

In this section of the course, we covered the basic setup and integration of software with the use of DataConduIT. Included in this coverage was basic fault-finding procedures that will help with all future installations and fault finding.

This was definitely a course that met my preconceived expectations and with the wealth of knowledge I took from it, I will be able to implement it into my work and offer a much better service to our clients.

I also managed to sneak in a bit of sightseeing, and was able to check out New York and Niagra falls- all in all the trip was a great success and I really enjoyed myself!

Why Use a Fully Encrypted Card Access Solution – FeliCa - Sony Make.believe

Cards such as Mifare and FeliCa, have an unique manufactures code (CSN) which until recently was adequate for normal level of access control. The CSN number is part of the manufacturing process and it used to requires a high skill level and very expensive equipment to clone chips with a specific number.

It has been possible for a while to read the card data and retransmit this, but this was again limited to a small number of experts with very specific knowledge about the card technologies.  For those applications where the security level had to be higher, encrypted cards have normally been specified.

With the success of the Internet, information sharing has totally changed. Protocols and details are available on line to any one, which already makes it easier for hackers to access.  

There are a few hacker organisations we are aware of and they publish details on how to hack the HID IClass, Mifare and many other types. This was still more of a development community and not easy to do for non experts. 

This has changed and now you can buy ready made equipment which can read the CSN of Mifare, FeliCa, HID and others. The data can then be easily retransmitted. This equipment can be bought ready made on line by anyone.

With the equipment you can easily read someone's card unnoticed (for example, in a lift) and then walk over to any door and retransmit to gain access.

An example of this equipment is available at: 

http://www.proxmark.org/

The trend in using just the CSN can cause big embarrassment for large corporate companies, if security was breached this way and was released in the public domain.

Security levels of cards and readers are becoming increasingly important because of the above statement.

An example of an encrypted Mifare card hacked is on YouTube. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8VVKnUdECgThere are a few examples on the Internet of this.

“FeliCa” has not been known to have been hacked and would be outside the scope of most people ability, if this was ever achievable due to the high levels of encryption."

Robert De'Antiquis

OnSSI Ocularis

Our PES Manager Izak Potgieter has been working in the security industry for five years. He is extremely well versed in a number of systems and is master certified in Lenel. Izak is HAE's go-to engineer and has allowed us an insight into one of his favourite products:

'After years in the security industry it rarely happens that I stumble upon a product that is so innovative that it amazes me.

When I first heard about OnSSI Ocularis I assumed it would be similar to all of the other products in the field catering for video recording solutions…… but after attending the training I can say that this is truly a high end solution that belongs at the top of the industry.

All the recording is controlled by background services that utilise resourses to the maximum. The user interface is managed with an IIS Web service.

There are several outstanding features: Blank screen monitoring, Push Video, Virtual Matrix and Motion search to name a few. All of these innovations set this apart as a high end solution.

The client software uses multiple screens with full functionality, without any problems and outstanding graphical interface. It also utilizes the GPU (Graphics Card) instead of the CPU to handle the decoding of video for display that is a better and more cost effective way of distributing the processing needs of encoded H264 video streams.

With different Solutions in place from Ocularis PS to ES there will be a solution to fit any given complexity and need.'

Izak Potgieter
PES Manager

To learn more about OnSSI, check out their website: http://www.onssi.com/

“Stop the Press” Sony FeliCa.. make.believe in Evolis

The latest in our Sony FeliCa growth can be attributed to the full integration into the Evolis 'Pebble printer' which allows the full encoding of FeliCa cards. This solution moves FeliCa one step closer towards becoming a true end to end solution and here at HAE has been greeted with much excitement.

This was achievable through using the free SDK tool provided by Evolis alongside their 'Pebble Printers'!

The Evolis 'Pebble' printer allows the printing of colour badges with photo resolution. Easily installable with aesthetically pleasing lines the Pebble 4 printer has a Magnetic Stripe encoder, Smart contact station encoding unit and Contactless encoding unit. These features are all superbly designed and flawlessly integrated making it the printer of the moment.

Watch this space for more developments and check out Evolis' website at: http://www.evolis.com/

Make.Believe… in Sony Global's FeliCa

Here at HAE we are excited about the continued partnership with Sony Global and the further development of the FeliCa card readers.

Why FeliCa?

Originally used in the Octopus card system in Hong Kong, the RFID smart card system, championed by Sony Japan, is a rising star in the world of security. With the encryption key dynamically generating each time the card is used, the use of mutual authentication between card and reader provides one of the most secure systems in the world. The cards are externally powered, with no battery. We are one of the few companies which have pioneered the RFID smartcard reader which reads FeliCa cards as well as CSN. This OEM product partnering with our supplier has allowed us to roll out the readers over Sony European sites.  This partnership has catapulted HAE to the forefront of up and coming technology in the security world.

The FeliCa card system itself is multi-faceted, with the same card that is used to allow access into a building also allowing the user to employ it as a health care device, a mobile wallet, or as a speedy airplane boarding device (seen at JAL and ANA).  The FeliCa system provides an ease of accessibility to the discerning card user, as they no longer have to carry a multitude of bank cards, access passes and transport cards.

This card system is truly the unique and brings the world one step closer to a bright contactless, hassle-free future.

Check out the Sony FeliCa website to see the latest news for FeliCa and the myriad of ways in which these cards can be used: http://www.sony.net/Products/felica/index.html