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Each year, the ESX Innovation Awards program recognizes outstanding products and services that drive the electronic security and life safety industry forward. This year's winners will receive their awards on the expo floor at ESX on June 4 and be featured in the Innovation Awards Showcase during expo hours, June 4-5 at the Indianapolis Convention Center.
To determine the best from each category, judges select winners from a pool of applications from manufacturers and service providers, serving the industry with innovative end-user offerings and tools that help dealers, integrators and monitoring professionals become more efficient and profitable.
"The nominees for ESX Innovation Awards were extremely impressive this year and nicely represent the electronic security and life safety industry," George De Marco, ESX Chairman said in the announcement. "Solving everyday problems is the key to growth opportunities for dealers, integrators and monitoring companies to better compete in the marketplace."
The winners selected are recognized as next-gen products and services that offer significant opportunities for growth. Judges from across the country are invited to provide their expert opinions. This year's judges are: Rodger Reiswig, Johnson Controls (Florida); Grady Medcalf, Spectrum (Colorado); Michele Monheim, Amherst Alarm (Upstate New York); Steven E. Paley, Rapid Security Solutions (Florida) and Adam Thompson, Wired-Up Systems (Arizona).
Entrants to the Innovation Awards program are judged on: Features and functions, innovation, end-user experience, ability to solve a problem, revenue growth potential, impact on company efficiencies and compliance with regulations. These metrics provide a rubric that determines the most innovative and exceptional products and services in the industry.
Winners of the Innovation Awards will be featured in the ESX Innovation Awards Showcase in Booth 615 during live expo hours, June 4-5.
To determine the best in show, the ten most innovative category-winners will enter the TechVision Challenge – a "Shark Tank" style competition before a panel of judges at ESX. The winner of the TechVision Challenge will be announced live from the expo floor at ESX Central on June 4.
Registration is still open for ESX. For more information and to register, visit ESXweb.com.
For the past few weeks, I have been rather intrigued with IoT devices, smart homes, and security and safety of people in this context. (After all, aren't our homes supposed to be our safe haven … our place of escape from the crazy, hurried world we live in?) After perusing the internet regarding this topic, I thought I had read about almost everything imaginable, but I was thrown a curve ball by a man, Geoffrey A. Fowler, technology columnist, The Washington Post, who literally made a song out of the recordings Alexa had of him! (Click here to listen.)
Fowler reported that he listened to four years of his Alexa archive that highlighted fragments of his life: spaghetti-timer requests, houseguests joking and random snippets of a once-popular TV show. Alexa even captured and recorded sensitive conversations—a family discussion about medication and a friend conducting a business deal—apparently triggered by Alexa's "wake word" to start recording. So, why are tech companies recording and saving our voice data? According to Amazon, "when using an Alexa-enabled device, the voice recordings associated with your account are used to improve the accuracy of the results."
Fact or fiction? Maybe both, because another main reason is to train their artificial intelligence (AI).
I may be going out on a limb here, but if people's voice data is being recorded and USED without their knowledge, isn't this an invasion of privacy? I say, "Yes, without a doubt!" Not only that, but shouldn't these tech companies hire and pay people for their voice data to train their AI? I mean, "free" saves the companies money, but to the extent of people's private conversations and information being recorded and used without permission?
So, what can be done? Defeating the purpose of Alexa would be to mute its microphone or unplug it, but, in my opinion, if I was going to have a private conversation, that would be better than putting my personal business out there. Another option would be to delete Alexa voice recordings, but Amazon warns:
(I wonder what a "degraded Alexa experience" entails and I also wonder how long it takes to process a deletion request, as during this time voice data can be used.)
For me personally, I will stick with the "old-fashioned" way of living to preserve and protect my privacy—physically stand up, walk over to the window and close/open the blinds by hand; set alarms manually on my smartphone or built-in timer on my microwave; and even use the remote to turn the TV off and on, change channels and control the volume.
By the way, don't forget to listen to your own Alexa archive here or in the Alexa app: Settings > Alexa Account > Alexa Privacy. What all does Alexa have on you?
As the Jaws warning theme song plays in my head, along with the 'Baby Shark' song that became an internet sensation, patterns of "do-do-da-do" fill my head as I anticipate the first-ever Affiliated Monitoring Shark Tank at Catalyst 2019. I'm excited to be heading out to sunny Orlando's Four Seasons at Walt Disney World Resort® to get a first-hand look at the PERs/mPERs niche of the security industry. This is Affiliated's 4th Catalyst Conference and I feel congratulations are in order, so on behalf of the SSN team, "Congratulations Affiliated Monitoring!"
As of February 28, 2019, at noon, via email, I got word that teams from over 70 companies were registered to attend this event. This is a marvelous turn out all on its own, but the final attendee count is yet to be determined since the event doesn't even start until today! Soon, golfers will be yelling "four" as they swing their carefully chosen clubs at Tranquilo Golf Course on the Four Seasons Resort to determine who reigns supreme on the course in best ball with additional challenges for longest drive and closest to the pin. Afterwards tips for free and almost free tools, tricks and marketing strategies to grow a PERs business will be presented with a welcome cocktail reception closely following at the Four Seasons' Pool Bar & Grill all on Wednesday, May 8th.
Then, bright and early on Thursday, May 9th, the live action will start on my Twitter feed @SSN_Ginger, and continue on until the end of the conference, sharing the highlights of each day. Thursday will be a PERs-related montage of Daniel Oppenheim of Affiliated Monitoring delivering the day's keynote: a view of the demographic changes driving the growth in the PERs industry along with PERs-specific trends; presentations; sessions; and networking intermingled with coffee and food.
Of course, on Friday, May 10th, there will be coffee and food, but more important, taking the stage is Executive Keynote Speaker and President, Healthcare Division at Connect America, Richard Brooks, an industry icon with story after story of priceless knowledge about leading and growing multiple PERs and telehealth businesses. Attendees will gain insights to take their PERs business to next level by learning the top things no one ever tells about when scaling a PERs company. Attendees are then invited to "swim" on over to the Shark Tank where innovators will come face-to-face with the Sharks, industry veterans who will listen to contestants' pitches and decide if they are interested!
Innovators include the brave:
Sharks include the blood-hungry:
I personally can't wait to see (and Tweet about) what goes on in THIS tank!
The day, and Catalyst 2019, will conclude with Brainstorming Roundtables with voted-on topics to include:
This year's Catalyst seems to be full of learning and building relationships while taking time to have fun. Here are some tips to get the most out of Catalyst 2019:
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) will host its annual Conference & Expo at the Henry B. González Convention Center in San Antonio, June 17-20. This comprehensive event brings together thousands of the industry's leading professionals who will attend more than 120 educational sessions and special events addressing the latest issues, challenges and trends in the world of fire, electrical, and life safety.
This year's expo, featuring more than 325 exhibitors, brings to life the products and services needed to meet and maintain compliance with prevailing codes and standards in the design, construction and operation of buildings and facilities of every kind. The expo floor will also feature an emerging technologies and electrical pavilion, offering product displays with hands- on learning and an immersive virtual reality experience for contractors and electricians, inspectors and building officials, among others.
Notable presentations include:
Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response and NFPA 3000TM(PS) Program: Lessons Learned and a New StandardJune 18, 8 a.m. - 12 p.m.With an increase in gun-related incidents around the nation, a panel of experts will explain recent events that led to the creation of the NFPA 3000TM(PS), Standard for an Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response (ASHER) Program. The session will include lessons learned from the specific events in which active shooters were involved, followed by a discussion that includes an overview of the content of the standard and the roles and responsibilities of those working to prevent future incidents.
Is it time to P.A.N.I.C.? Shifting Community Risk Reduction from Concept to RealityJune 17, 8 - 9 a.m.Find out what the P.A.N.I.C. is all about! Community risk reduction (CRR) is a process that identifies and prioritizes local risks to ensure integrated and strategic resource investment to reduce the occurrence and impact of dangerous risks. While CRR is discussed in many fire departments, a full implementation is often hindered by challenges. During this interactive discussion, presenters will break down five strategic actions—modeled in the acronym P.A.N.I.C.—to drive successful CRR implementation and overcome common barriers. Attendees will find out why successful CRR programs include input from officers, operations, and the overall community, learn real-world examples of the process in action, and have the chance to generate additional solutions.
Making Hot Work Safety an Everyday PracticeJune 17, 8 a.m. - 12 p.m.In its 2016 fire incident report, "Structure Fires Started by Hot Work," NFPA presents data showing a U.S. annual average of over 4,000 fires caused by hot work—and that doesn't account for those in industrial occupancies, including oil and gas sector worksites. US Chemical Safety Board, OSHA, and industry-specific reports confirm that hot work incidents are becoming increasingly common. Participants will receive practical guidance regarding flammable liquids or gases, including the essentials for monitoring concentration buildup of vapors that cannot be seen or detected without special monitoring devices.
When Uber Meets Octane: Fire Code Requirements for On-Demand FuelingJune 18, 5 - 6 p.m.NFPA 30A and the 2018 International Fire Code have new provisions for on-demand fueling where gasoline or diesel fuel can be delivered directly to a consumer's vehicle using a smartphone. This presents a variety of regulatory and emergency response issues to the fire service. This presentation reviews key technical requirements in NFPA 30A, 2018 IFC, US DOT regulations and the potential risks to emergency responders.
A New Standard for Energy Storage Systems: NFPA 855June 12, 9:15-10:15 a.m.As the energy storage industry continues to grow, NFPA is engaged in a number of initiatives aimed at promoting the safe and sustainable expansion of this renewable technology. One of NFPA's most substantial contributions is the creation of NFPA 855, Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage Systems. Get the most up-to-date and in-depth information on the contents of the new NFPA 855, which should be published or may have notices of intent to make a motion (NITMAMs) at the 2019 NFPA Technical Meeting.
Founded in 1896, NFPA is a global self-funded nonprofit organization devoted to eliminating death, injury, property and economic loss due to fire, electrical and related hazards. The association delivers information and knowledge through more than 300 consensus codes and standards, research, training, education, outreach and advocacy; and by partnering with others who share an interest in furthering the NFPA mission. For more information, visit www.nfpa.org. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed online for free at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess
The last blog I wrote, "What your connected smart home IoT devices are really doing," highlighted the fact that there are no security standards for IoT manufacturers to follow when creating networked devices. This should cause concern or at least pause for people using such devices, especially in their homes. But, just how aware are consumers about potential risks and do people actually trust the devices they use every day?
ASecureLife conducted a survey of 300 Americans nationwide to determine how much participants trust the technology they use regularly in their homes as well as people's biggest concerns related to smart home technology, home security and online privacy. The survey found:
1. A quarter of Americans are NOT concerned with being monitored online by criminals. This nonchalant attitude resulted in 23 percent of American households having someone victimized by cybercriminals in 2018, according to GALLUP.
Additionally, in 2017, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 300,000 complaints, totaling more than $1.4 billion in monetary losses for victims.
2. Americans are more concerned about being monitored online by the government than by businesses.
3. Two-thirds of Americans believe their smart devices are recording them. While it's time consuming, and to be honest, boring, thoroughly read a company's terms and conditions so you know what personal information that company is collecting from you, and how they're using it.
Tip: Adjust the settings on your smart equipment to maximize your privacy. For example, turn off Amazon Echo's "Drop In" setting to prevent the it from automatically syncing and conversing with other Echo devices.
4. About one in five parents would let Alexa entertain their kids while they're away. WOW! Parents are actually trusting their children's safety and security to the virtual world!? (We'll be discussing this later on in this blog post! Read on!)
5. Seventy-five (75) percent of Americans believe smart homes can be easily hacked, but 33 percent have and use some type of smart home technology. This indicates that consumers are indeed buying these gadgets. In fact, a joint-consumer survey conducted by Coldwell Banker Real Estate and CNET found 47 percent of Millennials, aged 18 to 34 years, have and use smart home products.
6. Women are typically more concerned with home security than financial security, and the opposite is true for men. Participants were asked if they fear a home invasion more than identity theft: 53 percent of women participants said "yes," compared to 44 percent of men.
Participants were also asked which of the following they would rather do: stop locking your doors or change all your passwords to "1234." Men's responses were split evenly, while 59 percent of women preferred to change their passwords to this all-to-common numerical sequence.
7. Americans aged 55 and older are more protective of their financial security than their home security; the opposite is true for younger people. Participants over age 54 were asked if they feared home invasion more than identity theft to which 70 percent answered "no." However, participants under age 34 were more likely to fear home invasion.
While all the findings were eye-opening, for me personally, the one that haunted me pretty deeply was the one about Alexa "babysitting" kids. It's one thing for parents to allow their children to use Alexa under their supervision, but to allow minors to access Alexa while they are away can be extremely dangerous, in my opinion and based on the news we see every day concerning criminals hacking into security systems, devices recording home-based conversations, apps giving away data to advertisers, and the list goes on and on.
Question for you parents out there: Would you allow your children to access Alexa when you aren't at home? Why or why not?
Mission 500, a 501c3 charitable organization born from the professional security industry to serve children and families in need across the U.S., raised over $145,000 at its 10th annual Security 5K/2K Run/Walk at this year's ISC West show, April 9-12 in Las Vegas.
Mission 500 Founder George Fletcher told Security Systems News during a video interview at ISC West that the organization was able to surpass this year's goal thanks to "sponsor support, signed up runners and individual fundraisers — our three primary sources of revenue — and our volunteers."
Fletcher pointed out that Mission 500 relies heavily on volunteers, and had around 20 who showed up at five in the morning to help set up the race. "They come out every year and are passionate about what they are doing to help children and families," he said.
Tom Nolan, director, strategic partnerships for Mission 500, added, "We had amazing volunteers — I think that was the best part of it for me."
Some of the proceeds from this year's 5K/2K event have already been put to great use during ISC West 2019 with volunteer and monetary donations made to Habitat for Humanity in Las Vegas to help provide a family in need with a new home, and a Mission 500 Care Pack drive during the event sponsored by HID Global, Freeman and the ISC West Security Events team.
"We are extremely thrilled at how the security industry continues to band together to and raise money for children and families in need," Mission 500 Chairman of the Board Tim Purpura said. "The 10th anniversary of the Mission 5K/2K event was our most successful single event to date, and we are extremely grateful to all of the participants, volunteers and sponsors that made this wonderful event possible."
The Mission 500 Club, which recognizes volunteers who raise $500 or more, had 12 members at this year's 5K/2K that raised a combined $21,000. Ronnie Pennington of Altronix was the top fundraiser with $4,425 in pledged donations, followed by Nick Arthur of Brinks Home Security™ with $1,130, which was matched by his employer for a total of $2,825. The top fundraising team was Brink's Home Security, which raised a total of $15,331.
This year's fastest female was Karen Salerno of ISC Events with a time of 21:07. The fastest male and overall winner was Mitchell Vanderhagen of Everbridge, who completed the 5K course in 18:23. Complete race times can be found at https://elementalracetiming.com/the-security-5k-2019/.
At the Mission 500 5K/2K awards ceremony, this year's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Award was presented to Brinks Home Security for their outstanding philanthropic work through the year. Dave Foglio, Founder of First Response Security, received the Mission 500 Humanitarian Award for his outstanding charitable work.
Hikvision's General Manager Eric Chen, and the Hikvision team, also increased their corporate social responsibility efforts at ISC West 2019 by donating an additional $860 to Mission 500 on behalf of all industry partners in attendance at their partner celebration at Tao.
The Security 5K/2K is a joint collaboration organized by United Publications, the publisher of Security Systems News, ISC Events and Mission 500. Confirmed charter sponsors include Alarm.com, Altronix Corporation, Avigilon, Axis Communications, Bosch Security Systems, Brinks Home Security, CMAC, COPS Monitoring, Dahua Technology, DITEK Corporation, DMP, Freeman, Galaxy Control Systems, HID Global, LENSEC, Hikvision, Intelligent Security Systems (ISS), LRG Marketing Communications, Milestone Systems, Napco Starlink Fire, PSA Security Network, Safety Technology International, Inc., and ZKTecko USA. The event is managed by Las Vegas Running Company, a race management company that stages approximately 25 road races each year across Southern Nevada.
For more information on Mission 500, contact Tom Nolan at [email protected] or call 516-903-7291.
As more and more people connect IoT devices to their homes, making them smarter, living machines, the more fodder hackers have to breach systems and gain access to consumers' personal identifiable information, or even gain entrance into their humble abodes. The fact is, no security standards exist for IoT manufactures to follow when creating networked devices.
Lawmakers and states are stepping up, looking at ways to help protect consumers.
Industry talk of late about protecting owners of IoT devices have circled around the Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2019 which would require the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop new recommendations for device makers to follow. Even some states have created specific rules for IoT device creators to follow, such as California, that will require devices to be shipped with unique passwords or force users to set or reset passwords when setting up a device as of January 1, 2020.
But, are laws really the answer to this seemingly never-ending debacle? Shouldn't the security industry come together as a whole to offer protection to consumers, their data and their homes? After all, we are in the business of protecting people while offering comfort and ease of living. I think a more proactive approach is in order, where device manufacturers step up to protect consumer data as well as empowering consumers to protect themselves.
A group of computer scientists from Princeton University and the University of California, Berkeley created a tool called Princeton IoT Inspector, an open-source desktop application that passively monitors smart home networks, showing potential security and/or privacy issues. It identifies all IoT devices on a smart home network, shows when these devices communicate/exchange data with an external server, and determines which servers these devices contacted and if those communications are secure. According to the IoT Inspector website, the goal is to answer three questions:
Sounds great, right? Well, there are two cautions to be noted when using this tool. First, device names are included in the data sent, so that data will be accessible by Princeton. The app asks users to consent to this the first time the app is used. (Tip: Make sure your devices don't include your name or any other personal identifiable information. If they do, rename them.)
Second, the research team is using a specific technique the "bad guys" typically use called ARP spoofing, a type of attack where a malicious actor sends false Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) messages over a local area network. Personally, I think it's creative and smart to use the same techniques to beat the bad guys at their own games, turning malicious acts into something good. Just be sure you trust Princeton should you decide to use this tool.
Currently, Princeton IoT Inspector is only available on macOS, but there is a waitlist for Windows, which will be released next month, and Linux to be released the week of April 24th, 2019.
I know I am aging myself here, but after reading about the JetBlue passenger who was none-too-happy to find out that her face would be used as ID for boarding, I thought back to the TV show of my youth called Candid Camera. Now if you are younger than 50 (yes, I am less than a month away from a half century old), you probably won't remember this show that featured a hidden camera with lovable host Allen Funt (and later with son Peter), who at the end of each skit would tell the person they are on a hidden camera show. Laughter would ensue and everyone would agree that it was all good fun.
The difference between then and now, though, is this whole concept of consent to being on video, not to mention current comfort levels within society today of having your identity out there in a database. I mean, let's be honest, the idea of DHS/Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) collecting and protecting millions of biometric profiles is a bit frightening, but that is exactly what the agency plans to do in the next four years, with the ultimate goal of making access as frictionless, and hopefully, as safe as possible.
In fact, according to its fiscal report for 2018, DHS/CBP built a facial biometric matching service using biographic Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) manifest data and existing photographs of travelers boarding international flights. The biometric matching service is a robust cloud-based service that leverages existing advance passenger information to create a pre-positioned "gallery" of face images from U.S. Government holdings. The galleries are smaller, more manageable data sets that can be segregated based on APIS data for specific flights. The photographs can come from passport applications, visa applications, or interactions with CBP at a prior border encounter where CBP typically takes a photograph. The biometric matching service then compares a live photo of the traveler to the gallery of face images for that flight to identify the traveler and enable CBP to confirm the traveler's crossing.
On exit, the matching service identifies the traveler, creates an exit record, and enables CBP to biometrically confirm the departure of in-scope, non-U.S. citizens. CBP is working towards full implementation of biometric exit in the air environment within the next four years to account for over 97 percent of departing commercial air travelers from the United States. In order to realize full implementation, CBP partnered with airports and airlines to deploy solutions to use biometric exit data-utilizing cameras (supplied by airports or airlines) that are integrated with the biometric solution.
As a result of the demonstrations and partnerships described above, CBP determined that facial recognition technology at the airline departure gate is a scalable solution for biometric exit in the air environment. At the end of FY 2018, biometric exit solutions were operational at 15 locations, and CBP has received many commitment letters from airport authorities and/or air carriers supporting biometric exit operations. Since its inception, over two million passengers on over 15,000 flights have used the technology on exit, with an average biometric match rate of 98 percent. As of December 2018, over 7,000 Out-Of-Country Overstays have been biometrically confirmed. Furthermore, similar successes have occurred when using the biometric technology in the air entry environment; CBP has to date used this data to identify six travelers attempting entry presenting travel documents not belonging to them, or presenting altered travel documents.
In FY 2018, CBP expanded the use of the Biometric Exit Mobile (BE-Mobile) program at land borders nationwide. CBP deployed mobile technology to the land border POEs, which allowed CBP officers working outbound pulse and surge operations to process exiting travelers using the BE-Mobile application. The BE-Mobile application creates a biometrically confirmed exit record for a departing traveler. This capability is another means by which CBP can close out entry/exit records biometrically, thus, helping to resolve some potential overstay records. From December 2017 through November 2018, CBP officers created a biometric exit record on over 23,000 travelers at the land border.
The agency is also working on both the southern and northern border using biometric technology, with plans to expand the application to identify people in cars.
What is your thought on the safety and security of protecting airports and borders with biometric solutions?
ISC West 2019 wrapped up on April 12 in Las Vegas after another record-breaking year in terms of attendance, according to Mary Beth Shaughnessy, Event Director - ISC Events and Unmanned Security Expo at Reed Exhibitions, who spoke to Security Systems News on the SSN Media Stage during the event.
"The show is bigger this year and we are looking at being up about 4 percent in attendance overall this year," she said. "We've got a number of new areas that are growing. Our emerging technologies zone has grown over 40 percent from last year to this year. New companies are up year over year and our connected security area is up this year as well. Just overall participation with the security industry, in general, with all of the new technologies coming out — everyone is just anxious and excited to get their products in the marketplace."
Shaughnessy confirmed what many of us were hearing on the showfloor, as exhibitors noted that their booths were jam packed with quality people each day. In addition, the education sessions were very popular again this year, with overall attendance up.
"The education this year is great, and it is all programmed by SIA," she pointed out, noting that she is excited to continue the relationship with SIA moving forward. "We've had great attendance, up from last year, at many of the sessions … Some of the top sessions looked at the convergence of physical and cybersecurity."
The following is a look at my time at ISC West:
Day One: Tuesday, April 9
Excited to be here in Vegas for ISC West 2019, the security industry's biggest conference and trade show of the year.
Started day one on Tuesday with The Advance, The Security Industry Association's annual membership meeting where SIA gave an update to a packed house on the state of the association, while also giving out several membership awards and voting in new members to the board of directors.
Scott Schafer, chairman of the SIA Board of Directors, hosted the event, which he called "the fastest hour at ISC West" and he was not joking, as a lot was covered in just a little over an hour's time.
Schafer pointed out that in addition to the security industry's continued solid growth, SIA is also in very good shape financially and in terms of growth on the membership side, which Schafer was confident will surpass 1,000 members any day now.
On the financial side, the association saw $7 million in revenue, with $6.4 million in expenses, leaving approximately a half million in surplus. Investments showed a 57 percent increase for 2018.
Schafer also pointed out that SIA signed a 10-year agreement with ISC Events with a 5-year clause, which he said is a "very exciting announcement" as the two have many events planned for the future with this continuing partnership.
SIA also gave out several membership awards at the Advance, including:• Member of the Year Award: Axis Communications• Chairman's Award: SIA Women in Security Forum• Sandy Jones Volunteer of the Year Award: Mark McCourt, Cobalt Robotics• Committee Chair of the Year Award: Chris Grniet, Guidepost Solutions
In addition to award presentations, Sal Mani, security systems manager for Google, spoke on the workforce imperative of developing cross-functional skill sets to stay competitive in the security industry.
New SIA Board members voted in at meeting include:• Greg Hill, Director, Intrusion Architecture, Johnson Controls• Kim Loy, Chief Marketing Officer, ACRE• Jody Ross, VP, Sales, AMAG Technology• James Rothstein, SVP, Global Security Solutions, Anixter• Brian Wiser, Regional President, Bosch Security Systems
Day Two: Wed., April 10
Started the first day of the trade show at the Hikvision Media Event, where Hikvision North America's Director of Global Public Affairs Michael Gutierrez, President Jeffrey He, Director of Cybersecurity Chuck Davis, and new General Manager for Hikvision USA and Hikvision Canada, Eric Chen, gave invited press an update on the current state of the company. Jeffrey He addressed some of the challenges that Hikvision faces, with growing anti-China sentiment, trade tensions, tariffs and government bans topping the list, noting that these "will likely impact us on the global front."
Chen looked at how the company continues to grow and prosper in the face of these growing challenges, noting that in North America Hikvision business showed $7.4 billion in revenue and 18.8 percent in year-over-year growth in 2018, as well as 40 percent compound growth from 2010 to 2018. The company worldwide has approximately 34,000 employees, with 6,000 engineers, he noted.
Chen said the company is "still going to invest in North America," focusing on SMB and the midmarket and "shifting from product selling to solution selling," with retail and education two of the company's biggest verticals.
While Hikvision continues to introduce new cameras, like the new 32MP multi-directional camera it unveiled this year, Chen pointed out that this year's theme for ISC is "Focused on Your Success," highlighting the company's customer-focused programs.
Davis, who teaches ethical hacking and serves on the SIA cybersecurity committee, outlined the company's cybersecurity strategy and milestones over the past few years, including the use of pen testing and ethical hacking for all cameras with a third party; the establishment of a cyber hotline in 2017; cybersecurity education roadshows (22 in the U.S. and Canada); joining FIRST.org, a global incident response organization and consortium; and creating a whitepaper that covers the testing and process of the lifecycle of a product before it reaches a consumer.
"This [white paper] is an important document for us to be transparent, and show that we are holding ourselves to a high standard," said Davis, noting that Hikvision is the only company to have a code transparency center where "anyone can come and do an audit."
Noting the importance of the network as the "first line of defense," Davis said Hikvision's SSL encryption process is held to the highest NIST standards, including the FIPS 140-2 standard.
Next, I headed over to the Genetec booth, where I spoke with Andrew Elvish, VP of marketing and product management and Derek Arcuri, product marketing manager, who outlined some of the company's cool new features in the new version of Security Center, the company's open-architecture platform that unifies video surveillance, access control, automatic license plate recognition (ALPR), communications and analytics. Some of the cool new features include customizable live dashboards, enhanced privacy protection features, a brand-new map-driven mobile app, and new functionalities that help users actively monitor the health of their system and ensure compliance with cybersecurity best practices. What makes Genetec stand out from the crowd, Elvish noted, is its "unified enterprise platform that gives a unique view into the data, allowing you to make informed decisions."
Over at the FLIR booth, I met with Fredrik Wallberg, director of marketing – Security & ITS, and Haley Coveny, public relations coordinator, who explained that the company is looking to be more of a "solution provider" rather than just a provider of products. In addition to its wide range of thermal camera solution, FLIR highlighted its new solutions for Smart Cities and perimeter protection applications. The company's new TruWITNESS wearable sensor platform is designed to expand true, real-time situational awareness for public safety operations. Combining video, audio, location data and IoT capabilities, TruWITNESS enables sensors to send alerts and stream data back to a central command center running FLIR United VMS for improved incident analysis and intervention.
Moving to the G4S/AMAG Technology booth, I spoke John Kenning, regional CEO for G4S Americas, who spoke about the company's continued commitment to using technology to help security professionals be more efficient and accurate, whether they are out in the field or back in the command center. The company is also taking a more "risk-based" approach as a "trusted advisor" who is there to evaluate and consult based on operational and compliance needs. "We are a top 5 integration business and a top 3 man-guarding business, which is a great combo."
Next, I visited with Benjamin Bryant, global public relations consultant for IDIS, which celebrated five years at ISC West with a comprehensive showcase of the South Korean manufacturer's IDIS Total Surveillance Solution. Highlights of the company's fifth anniversary with ISC West included areas of special emphasis on cybersecurity, deep learning analytics and facial recognition, and solutions for the retail and banking sectors. On the product side, the company released its new Compact IR Fisheye, featuring its dual-side dewarping in a smaller, more versatile approach. The company also unveiled its new 12MP Panamorph Fisheye and the full IDIS Compact Solution.
At the Allegion press event, Robert Lydic, Allegion's VP of PACS OEM Business, discussed how Allegion brings strength to the security industry with a legacy of knowledge and quality behind them and how that strength will be leveraged into forward-thinking solutions with the right balance of security, convenience and efficiency. Allegion is "a five year old company with brands that have been around for 100 years," he said, noting that these are brands that people trust, such as Von Duprin, the producer of the first "panic bar" style door mechanism, and Schlage, one of the oldest and "most tested and trusted" lock manufacturers. Lydic also noted that Allegion's mobile ecosystem is founded on the belief that providing physical access control should have an open, secured architecture offering customer-centered solutions.
Day Three: Thursday, April 11
Started the day bright and early at 5:30 a.m. volunteering with Mission 500, which hosted its 10th annual Security 5k/2k, bringing the entire industry together for a great cause. As Mission 500 Founder George Fletcher and Board Chairman Tim Purpura pointed out at the award ceremony on Thursday, this year's race was a huge success with more than $145,000 raised to help Mission 500 children and families in need. It felt good to get out there with SSN Regional Sales Manager Brad Durost, and walk — yes walk, sorry! —along with others to help this amazing organization.
Started the morning with Alarm.com, with Matthew Zartman, director of communications, who gave me a tour of the latest and greatest on both the residential and commercial side of the business, where the company has been growing its presence, especially in the SMB space, Zartman noted. For example, Alarm.com is making it possible to manage access control and video across multiple business locations. Just as Alarm.com informs the homeowner using data in Insights Engine, it can use data on the business side to provide business intelligence on top of access control and video surveillance management.
I next visited with Robin Regina Baker, CTO, SilverShield, which was showcasing its cloud-based safety and information system at ISC West, demonstrating the capabilities of their visitor management and communication software. Originally developed for school campus applications, the software incorporates a fully integrated suite of modules including visitor management, lockdown initiation and more. Designed to expedite emergency security procedures, the SilverShield Visitor Management System enables manned or unmanned visitor screening at all types of facilities. In addition to offering an incident and event management system, the company's in-app SilverShield HR & Safety Resource Center connects schools and businesses with local, highly trained security professionals to develop a security assessment, plan and documentation.
Visited next with Alcatraz AI, winners of the Judges' Choice Award in the SIA New Product showcase. I spoke with CEO and Founder Vince Gaydarzhiev about the company, which specializes in secure facial authentication for physical access control, replacing badging in the workplace with AI-based enrollment and anti-tailgating alerts. The three-year-old startup, which was founded by a team coming from Apple, NVIDIA and Lily Robotics — with venture-backing from JCI Ventures — is currently doing pilots with mid-size and large corporations in Silicon Valley. The company is using AI and machine learning, he pointed out, to simplify the enrollment process and make it as seamless and painless as possible.
I next met with UmboCV, which was featuring its new product, AiCamera, one of the first cameras in the industry with "AI processing on the edge," said CEO and Co-Founder Shawn Guan, who explained that the company always believed that the best video security experience comes from a perfectly integrated solution of intelligent Internet devices and the cloud, powered by machine learning. He showed me how the company's new AiBullet camera increases event detection distance while reducing baseline bandwidth usage to a fraction of a typical Internet camera. Guan also showed me how the camera provides 150 feet of daytime and nighttime event detection.
At the ISS booth, Shawn Mather, director of sales, gave me a tour of the booth, demonstrating why the company is one of the leaders in the VMS business, demonstrating how the company's native, or in-house, analytics help differentiate the company from other VMS providers. On the product side, the company recently introduced its SecurOS v.10 VMS featuring an updated, highly-intuitive GUI designed to accommodate multiple clients and the ability to easily manage large systems with infinite scalability. And while the company creates its own analytics in-house, he pointed out that it also fully integrates with top companies in the industry today, such as Axis, Hanwha, and Bosch.
I next spoke with Tracie Thomas, vice president of marketing for Boon Edam, which demonstrated its integrated entry solutions that mitigate tailgating at ISC West 2019. Integrated with access control and biometric technologies, the company's security entrances demonstrate "real world" capability to "stop piggybacking and tailgating," she explained. The company also continues to show how it integrates with other companies to provide a comprehensive solution and experience from the perimeter all the way into the building and key areas within the facility. The company's focus this year at ISC is to "show end users what the total experience is when you have key partners," said Thomas. She pointed to key integrations with Stonelock, IrisID and HID Global, as examples of Boon succeeding by partnering.
At the Sielox booth, I met with Karen Evan, president and CEO, who was excited to be celebrating the company's 40th year and a newly designed website. The Sielox portfolio of layered security systems address the complexity of providing the right combination of features and configurations to best accommodate specific applications and needs. Featured solutions include: the new release of Pinnacle v.10.4 Access Control Solution; Sielox CLASS Crisis Lockdown Alert Status System; AnyWare Browser-Based Access Control Platform; and the company's highly-touted 1700 Intelligent Controllers.
Off the show floor, I met with Stehapnie Mayes, VP, business development and Greg Alcorn, divisional director – transport and infrastructure, for Synectics, a global leader in the design, integration, control and management of advanced surveillance technology and networked security systems, for environments where security is operationally critical. With over 30 years' experience, Mayes pointed out that the company has gained an intimate understanding protecting critical infrastructure and assets, including oil and gas, gaming, transport and infrastructure, and high security in public spaces. By integrating systems and bringing relevant data into one platform, or "one pane of glass" as Mayes noted, the company's technology allows operators to be more efficient and accurate, preventing incidents, as opposed to reacting to them.
Day Four, Friday, April 12
Started the final day with a keynote from Juliette Kayyem, a national leader in America's homeland security efforts, as part of the SIA Women in Security Forum breakfast event highlighting the group's efforts since forming last year. SIA's Women in Security Forum is a group for both women and men that offers programs, professional development opportunities and networking events with the goal of supporting the involvement of women in the security industry.
Kayyem, who is the faculty director of the Homeland Security Project, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, gave a truly inspiring talk on the major events that have shaped her life and career, including raising a family while trying to create a Homeland Defense program after 9/11.
In addition to booth visits and covering events, I was able to do many video interviews on all three days of the trade show on the SSN Media Stage on the trade show, which can be found at www.securitysystemsnews.com/videos in the weeks following the show. The following is the list of video interviews I conducted at ISC West:
• ACRE: Joe Grillo, CEO• Arcules: Andreas Pettersson, CEO• AvantGuard: Justin Bailey, President• Briefcam: Stephanie Weagle, Chief Marketing Officer• DICE Corp.: Cliff Dice, CEO and President• Dynamark: Hank Groff, Senior VP, Sales and Business Development• ESIConvergent: Pierre Bourgeix, President• IDIS: Keith Drummond, Senior Director of Sales and Marketing• JCI: Eli Gorovici, General Manager, Tyco Access Control and Video Solutions• Milestone: Tim Palmquist, VP Americas• Mission 500: George Fletcher, founder, and Tom Nolan, director, strategic partnerships• Morse Watchmans: Tim Purpura, International Sales Manager, George Lawson, Account Executive• National Monitoring Center (NMC): Woodie Andrawos, President• OnCam: Scott Brothers, Chief Operating Officer• ONVIF: Per Bjorkdahl, Steering Committee chairman and Stuart Rawling, Steering Committee member• Pivot3: Brandon Reich, Vice President, Security and IoT• Qognify: Marc Whalen, Vice President of Sales• Rasilient Systems, Sean Chang, Co-founder, CEO and President• SAST: Nikolas Mangold-Takao, VP Product Management• USI Insurance Services: Robert Tockarshewsky, Vice President, Property & Casualty
It sounds cliché to say, but "I'm excited about ISC West this year." This is my first ISC since returning to the security industry and while I have memories of sore feet, late nights and early, sleepy mornings, I gladly welcome all because that means I have the opportunity to get reacquainted with old friends in the industry, and see and interact with new security products and services.
In addition to booth visits, breakfasts, happy hours and dinners, and of course, live tweeting @SSN_Ginger, I was invited by ADT to moderate their consumer privacy panel, "Consumer Privacy – How Can Security Lead the Way?" on Thursday, April 11th from 9:45 am to 10:45 am in the Sands Expo Center room 307. I cordially invite you to grab a cup of coffee and join myself along with panelists Kenneth Olmstead, internet privacy & security analyst, Internet Society; Brandon Board, chief information security officer, Resideo Technologies, Inc.; and Dylan Gilbert, policy fellow, Public Knowledge as we explore current practices and opportunities for the industry to strengthen their leadership in privacy standards. There will be an audience Q&A afterwards, so bring your questions and comments for our panelists.
Check out my blog for daily recaps this week and don't forget to follow me on Twitter @SSN_Ginger for live show updates.
And, in the blink of an eye, ISC West 2019 has come and gone, and the happenings of those days will forever be written in security industry history.
Leading up to the event, people are filled with excited wonder about seeing industry connections, making new acquaintances and establishing new industry relationships, and interacting with new and legacy products manufacturers display in their elaborate booths.
At the event, SIA offers education sessions that qualify for CE hours; the security industry joins forces to raise money for Mission 500 to help underprivileged children and their families; companies host breakfasts, happy hours and dinners, some complete with awards as symbols of appreciation to their integrator partners; and the showroom floor is literally alive with a humming buzz of conversation and an unexplainable energy that attendees can't help but feel. And, that's just scratching the surface. ISC West is truly a "wonderland" for the security industry.
Then, of course, there is the post ISC West reflection after everyone returns home, has time to rest and then think about the week gone by. The following is an excerpt from my ISC West daily diary with tid-bits from industry professionals:
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
The day before the show floor opened, DMP hosted their 9th annual Owner's Forum for its top 100 dealers, where like-minded executives and owners network and learn from acclaimed speakers on how to grow their business. Morning keynote speaker, Tim Whall, former CEO at ADT, imparted his knowledge to the room full of integrators, inviting them to think about why someone would buy from them. When employees are taken care of, this pride trickles down to the customers and profits will follow.
"How much effort are you willing to put into your business," Whall asked. "Make it [your business] meaningful by engaging with your employees; they must know you care about them as people and your vested in their success. Develop and acquire the necessary tools for success, establish pride by formulating team goals and define employees' duties so they can expand and grow."
Dealer attendees were awarded diamond, platinum, gold and silver level awards and a year in review video was presented, highlighting all of DMPs achievements, such as adding dealer analytics into Dealer Account, the company's online platform for integrators; launching their video doorbell with audio and local storage on the device; and introducing LTE Communicators with a lifespan until the year 2030.
The event concluded with the afternoon keynote speaker, Mark Murphy, CEO, Leadership IQ, who encouraged integrators to "clearly articulate to employees about their work performance so they know they are doing right."
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
The 12th Annual Axis Press Breakfast, hosted by Fredrik Nilsson, vice president of the Americas, and Martin Gren, company co-founder, kicked off my ISC West-centric festivities with coffee, scrambled eggs and the key components of a smart city, which include safety and security, waste management, critical infrastructure and IoT/cybersecurity.
"Can you ever have too many cameras," Gren queried the audience, to which heads shook left to right, indicating the answer as 'no.'
Gren agreed, but said that obtaining a permit to install a camera in a city is sometimes the most expensive part of the process. He offered this solution: "The more sensors you add, the more money you save because only one permit is needed."
Energized from the breakfast, I went onto the showroom floor to visit company's booths, starting with Vintra, where I learned about FulcrumAI, the company's AI-powered video analytics solutions.
"There are a number of deep learning concepts that are producing false positives," said Brent Boekenstein, CEO, Vintra, "but Fulcrum was built from the ground up using the company's own AI technology, and it works on fixed and mobile systems." Vintra created their own algorithms and they are able to explain exactly how the technology was built to integrators and end users. Coming in Q3 is a concept called "person re-identification," in which body recognition will be used.
Next, I spoke with Russell Vail, EVP – market development, Alula, who introduced me to BAT-Connect, a device that easily upgrades legacy security platforms into mobile by bridging intrusion, video and automation between smart devices end users already use.
"This is hot for dealers because major investments were made into legacy systems," Vail said. "BAT allows the use of mobile to arm and disarm legacy systems, for example, giving new life to older products."
I then sat down with Dan Cremins, global leader, product management, March Networks who is taking on the integrator challenge of RMR via a new version of Insight, a self-service portal that can be sold as a service for monthly recurring revenue.
"Insight provides scalable, system administration via a closed-loop system to understand all health management of all cameras at all locations," Cremins explained. "This provides complete visibility of the system," so, for example, integrators can monitor customer cameras and send a report indication which cameras at specific locations are coming close to using up their warranty, enabling proactive security and excellent customer service to help prevent attrition.
Additionally, March Networks integrated their POS with Shopify, making this their first cloud-based integration.
The topic of video evidence was next on my agenda, so I met with John Gallagher, vice president of marketing, Viakoo. The company announced the release of its Video Assurance Service (VAS) that provides oversight, automatic problem detection and continuous diagnostics, empowering teams to resolve issues onsite or remotely. Delivered as a managed service, integrators can use it to build "new recurring income with an out-of-the-box solution that delivers value to customers," Gallagher said. "VAS provides integrators with a digital connection to their customers, enabling preventative maintenance to be done remotely" which furthers end-user satisfaction.
Dortronics brought scalability to access control via the 4800 Series Intelligent Interlock Controllers. "With these controllers, a maze of two to five locked doors can be created, or scale up to 128 doors, all functioning off one controller, as facilities expand," Bryan Sanderford, national sales manager, Dortronics said.
By this time, I was getting a bit weary. As I walked to my next appointment with Kirby Han, art director, Altronix Corp., I was excited to see the company-hosted coffee bar and helped myself to an expresso with dark chocolate shavings before jumping into the topic of power supply. New to Altronix is the Trove Access and Power Integration Series, a rack-mounted solution with a removable backplane that allows installers to easily configure and test the system before installation.
"Trove comes as pre-assembled kits to make installation easier and running wires underground isn't necessary, which is costly," Han said.
Next was a conversation with Nancy Islas, president of Maxxess Systems, to discuss the access control software arena, with the introduction of the Maxxess InSite, a security solution that combines machine intelligence with human intelligence via a managed mobile communication system to empower employees to report their suspicions.
"The mobile app gives employees power to report," Islas explained, "and adding the human element of reporting allows for early detection of potential threats." Hence, taking a proactive approach to security.
Also unique is the Maxxess panic button, a feature found on the mobile app, wirelessly in the cloud via physical IoT devices and as hot keys on a keyboard.
Usually surge protection comes as an afterthought, but when investing in expensive security systems, it is a cost-effective insurance policy for protecting equipment. Ditek, a surge protection company, urges installers to at least offer surge protection to end-users or specify it at the proposal stage because it can reduce warranty claims and increase customer satisfaction.
Matt Virga, director of sales, LifeSafety Power, was my last visit of the day to discuss low voltage power solutions for access control solutions. OutSmart Technology provides visual voltage verification with a glowing blue LED light indicating 24 volts and a green light representing 12 volts of power.
"With our efficiency of design, the integrator, installer and end-user all benefit," Virga explained. "On the job, installers are able to simply switch a jumper from 12 to 24 volt or visa versa and end-users are provided with a unified solution."
Thursday, April 11, 2019
The SSN team got up around 5:30am to participate in the Mission 500 race … well, almost the entire team! I opted out this year because I was honored to moderate ADT's consumer privacy panel and then I was off again to more booth visits. First up, Resideo by Honeywell, where I saw solutions such as Buoy, a leak detector and their next generation ProSeries, a portfolio of products for a self-contained security system, that captures Resideo's four key elements: comfort, security, water management and air.
Next, I went over to the ADI Distribution and was met by John Sullivan, vice president of sales. He explained that all products housed on the company's shelves are color coded for easy identification. ADI has a "pick up anytime" room that is open 24/7 so dealers can rely on ADI to keep solutions at the ready. They also have a "quick pick up" where dealers can call in, go online or use an app to order products and the order will be ready for pick up in one hour.
Hanwha Techwin offered me a tour of their booth, demonstrating their cameras and explaining that trends seem to be moving into AI cameras and Android platform cameras.
ADT unveiled its new ADT Commercial brand at the show. "When a dealer calls into support there is a zero wait time and emails are answered within two hours," Dan Bresingham, executive vice president, ADT Command said.
My next stop was IRIS ID, a biometric access solution that scans a person's iris as the credential. When I asked why the iris instead of a fingerprint or different biometric, Mohammed Murad, vice president global business development and sales for IRIS said, "The iris has 240 to 400 data points that are analyzed compared to approximately 30 in fingerprints."
Moving on along the show floor, Christy Roth, marketing manager – applications and solutions took me through a journey through an actual simulated retail store to demonstrate the company's integrated solutions such as video paired with voice. Bosch offers a variety of products, so "we are focusing on what individual solutions can do when used in conjunction with our other solutions," Roth said.
As the day second was coming to an end, I stopped by and visited with LenelS2 and Interlogix. These companies were highlighting mobile credentialing, using mobile devices to operate access control, home and building controls, and video surveillance
My final stop was with Nortek/2GIG to interact with some of the technology that was featured in my article "Joe Roberts of Nortek Security and Control predicts industry trends."
Friday, April 12, 2019
I greeted the last day of ISC West 2019 at the Women in Security Forum breakfast which consisted of sipping coffee and networking with women (and men) in the industry. The whole room was in awe and inspired by guest speaker Juliette Kayyem, Harvard professor and most recently, President Obama's Assistant Secretary for Governmental Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, as she detailed the exact location of herself and her newborn baby when she first heard about the 9/11 incident.
After an inspiring morning, I was ready to return home and back to work, excited to research and write all about what I learned.
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SCC Home » Administration » Scholarship Foundation
Scholarship Foundation
Scholarship ApplicationFor a list of available scholarships, and to complete an application, please click on the link below.
To apply for a scholarship, please sign in by clicking on the "Sign In" button located in the top right hand corner.
The Solano College Scholarship Foundation is a non-profit corporation that awards scholarships to Solano College students on the basis of academic achievement and demonstrated potential for excellence. The Foundation is administrated by a Board of Directors providing representation from the communities of Solano County.
The goal of the Foundation is the promotion of scholastic excellence by providing a program that will identify, recognize and reward outstanding scholars attending Solano College. Beginning with the three scholarships that were presented in 1974, the program has grown significantly. Scholarships are presented at an annual fall Awards Ceremony held at the end of September or early October. In 2017, awards totaling over $42,000 were presented to seventy students.

subset: commoncrawl


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Fraud detection is a challenging problem. The fact is that fraudulent transactions are rare; they represent a very small fraction of activity within an organization. The challenge is that a small percentage of activity can quickly turn into big dollar losses without the right tools and systems in place. Criminals are crafty. As traditional fraud schemes fail to pay off, fraudsters have learned to change their tactics. The good news is that with advances in machine learning, systems can learn, adapt and uncover emerging patterns for preventing fraud.
Most organizations still use rule-based systems as their primary tool to detect fraud. Rules can do an excellent job of uncovering known patterns; but rules alone aren't very effective at uncovering unknown schemes, adapting to new fraud patterns, or handling fraudsters' increasingly sophisticated techniques. This is where machine learning becomes necessary for fraud detection.
Machine learning is all the rage now. Most vendors claim they have some form of machine learning, especially for fraud detection. SAS has been a pioneer in machine learning since the 1980s, when neural networks were first used to combat credit card fraud. But just because we've been doing it so long doesn't mean we've been resting on our laurels. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
Machine learning is a critical part of the fraud detection toolkit. Here's what you'll need to get started.
Data sets are only growing larger, and as the volumes increase, so does the challenge of detecting fraud. In fact, data is key when it comes to building machine learning systems. The adage that more data equals better models is true when it comes to fraud detection. Practitioners need their machine learning platform to scale as data and complexity increase. While academic tools often work well with thousands of records and a few megabytes of data, real-world problems are measured in gigabytes or even terabytes of data.
The advantages of multiplicity
There is no single machine learning algorithm or method that works. Success comes from the ability to try lots of different machine learning-based methods, trying variations on them and testing them with a variety of data sets. The data scientist needs a toolkit with a variety of supervised and unsupervised methods – as well as a variety of feature engineering techniques. Finally, there is a creative aspect or "art" to machine learning for fraud detection. It's the application of machine learning in new and novel ways, like combining a variety of supervised and unsupervised methods in one system to be more effective than any single method alone.
Integration into operations
It should be obvious, but this one's a challenge for many organizations. Once you have a machine learning model developed, the challenge becomes integrating it with operations. If your data is in Hadoop, it makes sense that your machine learning model can be applied in Hadoop. Similarly, if your data is streaming in real-time systems, you want a machine learning engine that can run in real time or in stream. Portability of the model and integration of the decision logic within operational systems is paramount to stopping fraud at scale – and as it occurs at scale.
White boxing
Explaining what a machine learning system is doing is critical; this is often referred to as "white boxing." Machine learning methods and models are generally black boxes. It's very difficult (if not impossible) to explain to analysts why they got the score or decision that they received. There are many approaches to including scorecards based on local linear approximation, generation of textual narratives and generation of graphical visualizations. These are approximations, but can provide users insight into the machine learning model and guide the fraud investigation process.
Ongoing monitoring
All things change, and you must adapt over time. Ongoing monitoring of machine learning fraud detection systems is imperative for success. As populations and the underlying data shift, expected system inputs degrade and therefore have an impact on overall performance. This isn't unique to machine learning systems; rule-based systems have the same challenge. But newer machine learning methods can adapt to new and unidentified patterns as underlying changes occur. This eliminates some, but not all, of the machine learning retraining and evaluation steps.
A good monitoring program proactively looks at the data entering the system, evaluates the machine learning model's predictions and explanations, and alerts administrators to shifting data trends and statistics before dramatic changes affect operations and the bottom line.
What about the impact on your customers?
For one financial institution, fighting fraudulent cases was a challenge. It had to identify nefarious transactions, but also maintain quality customer service. A vigilant fraud detection effort cannot be intrusive to the customer by flagging – and declining – legitimate transactions.
This financial institution wanted to modernize its rule-based fraud detection system and strike a balance between oversight and customer service. To do this it worked with SAS to implement a machine learning-based fraud detection solution that takes advantage of an ensemble of neural networks to create two different fraud scores:
- A primary fraud score, evaluating the likelihood that an account is in a fraudulent state.
- A transactional score, evaluating the likelihood that an individual transaction is fraudulent.
Using this approach, the financial institution could correctly identify close to $1 million in monthly transitions that had been erroneously identified as fraud, and was able to identify an additional $1.5 million per month in additional fraud that had gone undetected. Besides dramatically improving the company's ability to detect fraud, the solution significantly increased customer satisfaction by reducing the friction between the company and its customers. How? By significantly improving the transaction approval process while increasing the effectiveness of fraud detection.
Think out of the box
Finally, successful machine learning programs have an element of ongoing experimentation. It isn't enough to just build a machine learning model and let it crunch. Fraudsters are clever, and technology is changing fast. Having a sandbox where data scientists can freely experiment with a variety of methods, data and techniques to combat fraud has become a critical aspect of top programs. Investments in boosting the capacity of data scientists who combat fraud have an almost immediate payback.
Analytics and the AML Paradigm Switch
Financial organizations are deploying artificial intelligence and machine learning in the fight against financial crimes. In this ISMG report, David Stewart, Director of Pre-Sales for the Global Security Intelligence Practice at SAS, offers tips to help separate fact from market hype when reviewing new data analytics tools.
Get the report
So what exactly is machine learning?
Simply put, machine learning automates the extraction of known and unknown patterns from data. It expresses those patterns as either a formula or instruction set that can be applied to new and unseen data. The machine learns and adapts as outcomes and new patterns are presented to it, and can be either supervised or unsupervised.
Supervised machine learning is a class of analytic methods that attempt to learn from identified records in data; this is often referred to as labeled data. To train a supervised model, you present it both fraudulent and nonfraudulent records, and the model then attempts to infer a function or instruction set that can predict whether fraud is present by applying it to new examples. Common supervised machine learning methods include logistic regression, neural networks, decision trees, gradient bosting machines, random forests of trees, support vector machines and many more.
Unsupervised machine learning is different. Since you don't know what data is fraudulent, you want the model to create a function that describes the structure of the data. This way the model flags anything that doesn't fit the model as an anomaly. To train an unsupervised model, you simply present it data and the model attempts to infer a function or instruction set that describes the underlying structure and dimensions of the data. This function or instruction set can then be applied to new and unseen data.
The challenge with unsupervised methods is that it's often hard to assess the accuracy of the detection scheme until data has been worked and verified by hand. Common unsupervised machine learning methods include self-organizing maps, k-means, dbscan, kernel density estimates, one-class support vector machines, principal component analysis and many more.
And onto artificial intelligence
We've come a long way from statistical analysis to machine learning, but the momentum of machine learning and artificial intelligence is gaining speed. To find out more, check out The Enterprise AI Promise, which describes a phone survey of executives from 100 organizations across Europe in banking, insurance, manufacturing, retail, government and other industries. The SAS study was conducted in 2017 to measure how business leaders felt about AI's potential, how they use it today and plan to use it in the future, and what challenges they face.
Recommended reading
- Article How AI and advanced analytics are impacting the financial services industryTop SAS experts weigh in on the topics that are keeping institutions up at night and fraudsters in a job.
- Article Five AI TechnologiesDo you know the difference between artificial intelligence and machine learning? And can you explain why computer vision is an AI technology? Find out in this short explainer.
- Article Prevent child abuse through analyticsWith tremendous potential for child welfare agencies to use data and analytics to prevent child abuse and improve outcomes for children and families, child welfare advocates discuss the benefits of using data and establishing a data-driven culture to advance practice and policy.
- Article Blind to the black swan theory? How a centralized approach applying analytics to financial crime prevention can protect against the unexpected.


text:
As part of a carefully planned combination of general, cosmetic, and orthodontic dentistry, dental reconstruction is a comprehensive treatment approach for patients with mild to chronic pain from severe dental problems, such as tooth loss, facial muscle distortion, gum disease and TMJ, or social insecurity and self-consciousness related to dental problems.
If you are interested in a smile makeover, our skilled staff in Miami will discuss your concerns and help you determine if dental reconstruction is an appropriate treatment option. Treatment may include general and specialty dentistry, as well as implants, porcelain veneers, and teeth whitening.


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I'm going out tonight and decided on this cream dress from Topshop to wear with some heels I got from eBay, with ankle socks & sequin clutch.Was going to post a outfit of that but I thought I'd just show you something casual instead. Adore the dress from New Look, I got it when I was with Victoria a few weeks ago, Its gone down in the sale to £9 now, which is gutting, Its annoying not working there anymore and seeing what goes down! BOO. Couldn't be bothered with accessories and stuff, I don't think it needs a necklace and I just wanted something simple to run a few errands in! I love the colour of my tan that I got yesterday, its a Sienna spray tan 16% I think! I have quite dark/tanned/olive skin so it really took well! I might start getting it every week haha! FISTPUMP!
Spent today watching Extreme Couponing, I wish I could do that. Seems to cool yet totally pointless, why someone would need 1000 tubes of toothpaste I don't know. Kinda addictive watching though. Sometimes I watch the most pointless shows on TV, a few weeks ago I got obsessed with this program called Storage Wars which is basically people who buy storage lockers then sell the stuff inside it. Pointless yes, addictive yes.
Ps. I do have sheer black tights on, my legs arent that dark hahah!


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The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the use of an iPad, iPod or iPhone with Arch Linux.
- 1 Installation
- 2 Connecting to a device
- 3 Changing iPod mountpoint
- 4 Importing videos and pictures
- 5 Converting video for devices
- 6 Device specific
- 7 iPod management apps
- 8 See also
Install the libimobiledevice libraries and optionally ifuse the mounting utility
Connecting to a device
Usbmux daemon
usbmuxd is required to make connections to iOS devices all. systemd comes with udev rule to automatically start and stop this daemon so no user interaction is required.
Insert the iOS device and verify that
usbmuxd.service automatically started.
systemctl status usbmuxd.service
... Active: active (running) since Sun 2020-01-19 19:23:18 UTC; 22s ago ...
In order to be allowed to connect to iOS device it must be paired with computer.
idevicepair pair
SUCCESS: Paired with device d8e8fca2dc0f896fd7cb4cb0031ba249
If you have multiple iOS devices connected
--uuid ios_uuid parameter can be passed to target specific device.
Application integration
Applications which use GVFS, such as some file managers (GNOME Files, Thunar) or media players (Rhythmbox) can interact with iOS devices after installing the gvfs-afc and gvfs-gphoto2 packages. Restarting the file manager or application might be needed.
Manual mounting
iOS has a concept of application documents which are user accessible files.
For example, if VLC is installed on device to mount files that VLC can access:
# ifuse --documents org.videolan.vlc-ios mountpoint
org.videolan.vlc-ios is the bundle id .
The mountpoint field is where you want to have it mounted.
Changing iPod mountpoint
Traditional iPods are accessed just like a normal USB storage device containing a vfat file system (in rare cases
hfsplus), and can be accessed as such. See the USB storage devices article for detailed instructions.
hfsplus formatted. For convenience, as Arch kernel is built with no support for that filesystem, you might want to restore your iPod using iTunes on Windows. This will erase all data on your iPod, and format it as a vfat filesystem
If udisks2 is running, it will mount an attached iPod to
If the volume label of your iPod is long, or contains a mixture of spaces, and/or lower-case and capital letters, it may present an inconvenience. You may easily change the volume label for more expedient access using
dosfslabel from the dosfstools package:
- Get and confirm the current volume label:
# dosfslabel /dev/sdXY
- Set the new volume label:
# dosfslabel /dev/sdXY ArchPod
- Unmount the device:
$ udisksctl unmount -b /dev/sdXY
- Mount it again:
$ udisksctl mount -b /dev/sdXY
/dev/sdxx is the current device node of your iPod.
Importing videos and pictures
Both videos and photos can be found in typically in
HTML5 videos
Typically you want to convert MOV files to a HTML5 video format like OGV using ffmpeg2theora. Note that the creation date metadata is not in the converted video, so you need to use a script like:
#!/usr/bin/sh find -name "*.MOV" | while read mov do d=$(gst-discoverer-1.0 -v $mov | awk '/datetime:/{print $2}' | tr -d \") base=${mov%.*} if test -f $base.ogv then touch -d${d} $base.ogv ls -l $base.ogv else echo $base.ogv missing fi done
And use
cp -a or
rsync -t in order to preserve the file's date & time.
Importing pictures and deleting them
You can move photos and videos out of
<mountpoint>/DCIM/100APPLE, however you need to trigger a rebuild of the "Camera Roll" database by deleting the old databases.
# cd <mountpoint>/PhotoData # rm Photos* com.apple.photos.caches_metadata.plist
Converting video for devices
Handbrake is a nifty tool with presets for a variety of iPod versions. CLI and GTK versions are available with the handbrake-cli and handbrake packages respectively.
If you do decide to take the CLI way, a good guide is available at http://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/CLIGuide[dead link 2020-03-29 ⓘ].
Install the avidemux-qt package.
This can convert to mp4 files. If you enforce a hard max of bit rate @ 700ish and keep the video size to 720x480 or 320x240 than it works fine for video file exporting.
Has extremely comprehensive configuration support, which will be able to spit out iPod-compatible video files. Check out mencoder(1); a lot of MPlayer opts will also affect encoding.
A basic guide is also available at MEncoder.
An example command to encode iPhone/iPod Touch-compatible video:
mencoder INPUT -o output.mp4 \ -vf scale=480:-10,harddup \ -oac faac -faacopts mpeg=4:object=2:raw:br=128 \ -of lavf -lavfopts format=mp4 \ -ovc x264 -x264encopts nocabac:level_idc=30:bframes=0
Another encoder with comprehensive configuration support. Example command to encode for 5G iPod:
$ ffmpeg -vcodec xvid -b 300 -qmin 3 -qmax 5 -bufsize 4096 \ -g 300 -acodec aac -ab 96 -i INPUT -s 320x240 \ -aspect 4:3 output.mp4
or iPod Touch/iPhone compatible video output:
$ ffmpeg -f mp4 -vcodec mpeg4 -maxrate 1000 -b 700 -qmin 3 -qmax 5\ -bufsize 4096 -g 300 -acodec aac -ab 192 -s 480×320 -aspect 4:3 -i INPUT output.mp4
Device specific
iPhone/iPod Touch
By default, neither the iPhone nor the iPod Touch present mass storage capability over USB, though there is a solution for accessing your files.
The proposed solution is to use a FUSE file system called ifuse, which allows you to mount your device through USB, as you normally would. After installing ifuse, for instance, you should see your iPhone appear in the left navigation of Gnome Files and other supporting file managers.
Refer to this page:[1]
The iFuse Way
Now make sure that you have the fuse module loaded by doing
modprobe fuse, assuming that you do not have it in
/etc/modules-load.d/ already.
You can now mount your device. Make sure it is unlocked before you plug it in, or it will not be recognized.
# ifuse <mountpoint>
The mountpoint field is where you want to have it mounted.
And you are done! You should be able to point your syncing software of choice to the mount point and be able to transfer files.
To unmount your device:
# umount <mountpoint>
Members of group
fuse can mount devices as regular user:
$ ifuse <mountpoint>
To unmount:
$ fusermount -u <mountpoint>
Generating HashInfo file
If you have not previously synced your device using iTunes specifically, you will get error messages telling you that the HashInfo file is missing. This can be fixed by making an iTunes installation on MacOS or Windows create it (by plugging in the iPod there). Alternatively you can create this file yourself, instructions can be found on this website.
Unobfuscating the Database
Since firmware version 2.0, Apple has obfuscated the music database. If you are using recent firmware, the file
/System/Library/Lockdown/Checkpoint.xml can be modified to enable use of the older, non-obfuscated database. If that file doesn't exist then try to copy from
/System/Library/CoreServices/Checkpoint.xml to
/System/Library/Lockdown/Checkpoint.xml then replace:
<key>DBVersion</key> <integer>4</integer>
<key>DBVersion</key> <integer>2</integer>
Then reboot your device.
If syncing fails with "ERROR: Unsupported checksum type '0' in cbk file generation!", you may need to leave this at 4. libgpod seems to expect a hashed database.
iPod Classic/Nano (3rd generation)
You need to set up the iPod to make libgpod able to find its Firewire ID. For this, you will need to get your FireWire ID manually
1) Mount the iPod as a rw mount point. In the following example, I will use
2 ) Find the serial number by typing
# lsusb -v | grep -i Serial
this should print a 16 character long string like 00A1234567891231 (it will have no colons or hyphens)
3) Once you have that number, create or edit
/mnt/ipod/iPod_Control/Device/SysInfo. Add to that file the line below:
FirewireGuid: 0xffffffffffffffff
(replace ffffffffffffffff with the 16 digit string you obtained at the previous step and do not forget the leading 0x before the string)
Your iPod can now be managed with Amarok or gtkpod.
iPod Nano 5th generation
Follow the instructions below in order to set up the FirewireID then go to following URL – http://ihash.marcansoft.com/ – and enter the serial number (the one used in the previous step) on the website. It will generate a file (named HashInfo) which you will place under the iPod_Control/Device/ directory. Unplug the iPod device and plug it back.
All credits go to https://wired-news.blogspot.it/2012/09/ipod-nano-5g-synchronization-issues-in.html
iPod Nano 6th generation
By default libgpod does not seem to be able to syncronize on a iPod Nano 6th generation. It copies data, but as soon as USB is disconnected, everything is as before. The package libhashab-gitAUR fix this.
iPod Shuffle 1st and 2nd generation
Due to the simple structure of the Shuffle (compared to the "big" iPods), it is possible to use the player almost like any other USB flash MP3 player. What is necessary is rebuild_db.py file stored in the iPod's root directory. Simply copy MP3 files onto the iPod Shuffle (sub-folders are allowed too) and run:
$ python2 /path/to/rebuild_db.py
iPod Shuffle 4th generation
In order to use this version of the iPod Shuffle under linux, you can use the python based command line tool ipod-shuffle-4gAUR. It also provides advanced voiceover and (auto)playlist generation support.
iPod management apps
- Rhythmbox
- GTK interface (GNOME)
- Is part of the official GNOME projects.
- Fast, light interface.
- Manage music on your computer and iPod
- Download or stream podcasts and video podcasts
- Queue up songs and podcasts
- Last.fm integration
- Live radio stations
- Jamendo and Magnatune support
- Audio CD burning
- Album cover display
- Song lyrics display
- DAAP sharing
- Banshee
- GTK interface (GNOME)
- Uses Mono so it is slower and more resource hogging than rhythmbox
- Device Sync: Sync your music and videos to your Android, iPod, or other device - or import its media
- Podcasts: Download or stream podcasts and video podcasts
- Play Queue: Queue up songs, videos, and podcasts, or let the Auto DJ take over
- Shuffle Modes: Shuffle (or Auto DJ) by artist, album, rating, or even songs' acoustic similarity
- Album Art: Artwork is automatically fetched as you listen
- Powerful Search, Smart Playlists: Find exactly what you want, fast
- Video Support: All the power of Banshee, now for your videos
- Yamipod
- GTK interface (GNOME)
- super lightweight application for managing ONLY music on your iPod (not on your computer)
- easy ratings edit
- PC to iPod synchronization
- News RSS and podcasts to iPod upload
- Last.fm support
- playlist support
- GTKPod
- GTK interface (GNOME)
- Read your existing iTunesDB (i.e. import the existing contents of your iPod including play counts, ratings and on-the-go playlists).
- Add MP3, WAV, M4A (non-protected AAC), M4B (audio book), podcasts, and various video files (single files, directories or existing playlists) to the **iPod. You need a third party product to download podcasts, like 'bashpodder' or 'gpodder'
- View, add and modify Cover Art
- Browse the contents of your local hard disk by album/artist/genre by adding all your songs to the 'local' database. From there the tracks can be **dragged over to the iPod/Shuffle easily.
- Create and modify playlists, including smart playlists.
- You can choose the charset the ID3 tags are encoded in from within gtkpod. The default is the charset currently used by your locale setting.
- Extract tag information (artist, album, title...) from the filename if you supply a template.
- Detect duplicates when adding songs (optional).
- Remove and export tracks from your iPod.
- Modify ID3 tags -- changes are also updated in the original file (optional).
- Refresh ID3 tags from file (if you have changed the tags in the original file).
- Sync directories.
- Normalize the volume of your tracks (uses mp3gain or the replay-gain tag)
- Write the updated iTunesDB and added songs to your iPod.
- Work offline and synchronize your new playlists / songs with the iPod at a later time.
- Export your korganizer/kaddressbook/Thunderbird/evocalendar/evolution/webcalendar... data to the iPod (scripts for other programs can be added).
- Floola
- GTK interface (GNOME)
- Amarok
- KDE/qt interface
- qPod
- KDE/qt interface
- front-end for GNUpod
- GNUpod
- command-line only
- jakpod
- JakPod is based on Java and allows you to copy music and video files to your iPod.
- iPod Nano 6th support
- jakpodAUR[broken link: package not found]


text:
Copyright in Europe: Minimal Reform to Avoid Crucial Questions | La Quadrature du Net [... - 0 views
shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 17 Jan 16 - No Cached
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 17 Jan 16"Submitted on 9 Dec 2015 - 18:17 copyright creative contribution free speech Net filtering Andrus Ansip Günther Oettinger press release Printer-friendly version Français Paris, 9 December 2015 - Today, the European Commission has presented its proposal to reform copyright law in the European Union. This package includes a proposal for a regulation on portability of online services, as well as a communication to announcing future reforms to follow in 2016. The European Commission has thus confirmed that it does not wish to reopen the file on the InfoSoc directive 1, reflecting its reluctance and lack of ambition on this issue."


text:
Real Property Records and Assessments
The Schenectady County Real Property Tax Service Agency has made the real property records for the entire county available online. These records may be searched by name or street address and will give extensive information about the property and any houses upon it, along with assessments, taxes, exemptions and sales history. When searching these records, please note:
- pigtail half wig2
- Some property may be composed of multiple adjacent parcels with distinct tax map IDs, some of which may not contain the street address.
- Not all tax information is available for all records. Some may include county tax bills but not school taxes, while others may have neither.
- The records may be updated at different times depending on the assessor's office which supplies them.
If you have additional questions about how to use this computer system, please contact the Real Property Tax Service Agency at 518-388-4246.
Land Records
The Schenectady County Clerk has put land records online using a system which is quite different from the real property system mentioned above. Some of the records in the real property system are only current through the last update supplied by the local assessor. The land record system allows you to search for the latest changes in the deed. When searching these records, please note:
- Although it says it's possible to search by name, this does not appear to be true. Try using the tax map ID, which you may locate using the real property records.
- Property which has not changed owners in several decades probably will not show up in this system.
Here's an example of how this works. If you want to see the most current information for 1100 Erie Boulevard, search by that address in the real property records. You'll discover the tax ID is 39.64-1-7. In the land records, choose "Parcel Number" under "Document Search Criteria" at the top of the screen. Enter 39.64 under Section, 1 under Block and 7 under Lot. You may use an asterisk as a "wild card" search term in any of the fields to broaden your search.
This will retrieve multiple entries since 1985, and you may view the original documents filed at the County Clerk's office by choosing the "View Pages" option. You will need to have either a TIFF viewer (such as AlternaTIFF) or a free PDF viewer (such as Adobe Reader) installed on your computer to view these pages. Computers at the Schenectady County Public Library have these viewers.
If you have additional questions about how to use this computer system, please contact the Schenectady County Clerk's office at 518-388-4220.
Recent Salesbeshe synthetic lace front wig lw-stacy
NYDEEDS is a commercial database of real estate sales records. This free version allows searches of recent sales by seller or street. Some information is only available to subscribers.
Historical Information
A transcript of the assessment rolls for the First Ward of the City of Schenectady for 1813 is available in the Schenectady Collection of the Schenectady County Public Library at Schdy R 974.744 S32as. For other information, please contact the appropriate local assessor's office.


text:
One of my favorite childhood is fried meat ball.I remember my mom like to make this dish when there is a festival or prayer offering.This dish is easy to prepare and needed only minimal ingredients.Fried meat ball is also suitable to serve as snack to children or adult alike.
1 1/2 minced pork (get ready minced pork or request butcher to minced if wanted lesser fats)
10 waterchest nut,peeled and chopped
1 tsp 5 spices powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp rice flour
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 large egg
1 cup of cooking oil,plus extra if necessary
1:Combined all seasoning ingredients,water chestnut and minced meat together in a big bowl,mix well.
2:Dip hands wet before scoop the meat mixture with a spoon onto your palm,roll into a small ball,set aside on a plate.Continue until all done.
3:Heat oil in fryer or stock pot at medium high heat about 360 F.Place the balls in the hot oil.Do not over crowded the fryer or pot.Fry minced balls for 10 minutes or until slightly golden brown.
4:Remove fried minced ball from fryer,placed on paper towel to dried the excess oil.
5:Serve warm with your favorite chili sauce.
minced meat mixture
fried meat ball


text:
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text:
Brian Burke returns to Anaheim Ducks
Though his Leafs took a while to prove it, Brian Burke is still a master judge of talent. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
By Allan Muir
It's clearly not about the money for Brian Burke.
Burke, removed as general manager of the Maple Leafs last month, could have stayed in Toronto, puttered around and collected on the final two years of contract that paid a reported $3 million per. Instead, he'll rejoin one of his former teams, the Anaheim Ducks, as a part-time pro scout.
The Ducks made the announcement early Thursday afternoon.
The position might seem like a step down, but it's more of a career retrenchment for the voluble, irascible Burke.
There's a lot to be said for leaving when you know you're not wanted. Burke suffered the indignities only as long as he had to and then picked his spot. In Anaheim, a town where he built a Stanley Cup winner in 2006-07, his opinions and insights will carry weight. He won't be the decider, but he'll have a voice with general manager Bob Murray, something he wouldn't be afforded in Toronto.
Burke's always been considered a reliable judge of pro talent. It took time, but the team he built in Toronto looks like the competitor he always envisioned, and he built an aggressive new model that led to Team USA's surprising silver-medal winning finish at the Vancouver Olympics. That kind of knowledge will be a real asset in Anaheim.
This gig keeps him on the front lines, active in player assessment. That's a perfect springboard for the next general manager spot that opens up. And whenever one does (Buffalo and Washington are on alert), Burke's name is likely to be at or near the top of that team's wish list.
And if the right NHL job doesn't pop up soon, he might have a way to fill the idle hours. A part-time position would afford Burke the freedom to tackle the responsibilities of building Team USA for the 2014 Sochi Olympics. He hasn't been named general manager of that club, but he is regarded as the front-runner for the position.


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In the game of life, there are few rules and even fewer referees, but you must play as long and as hard as you can, actor Brian Dennehy told Woodstock Academy's class of 2013.
In the game of life, there are few rules and even fewer referees, but you must play as long and as hard as you can, actor Brian Dennehy told Woodstock Academy's class of 2013.
Dennehy, best known by the graduates not for his acting career but as "Sarah's dad," addressed his daughter and her 274 classmates just before they received their diplomas Sunday.
They've dealt with plenty of "blowhards" in their young lives, he said, and there are far more in the world beyond high school — students can even look forward to being blowhards one day themselves, he said, eliciting chuckles from the audience.
But it's when they're dealing with those people that they should contemplate what they want their lives to be, he said.
"You have to create the need for yourself. The world doesn't need you. Or, more accurately, it doesn't know that it needs you. Your job is to make the world, your part of it anyway, aware of you and aware that it needs you. That's what work really is — making people aware of you, making them need you in some way, for which they will compensate you," he said.
While others describe it differently, Dennehy said "what it really is, is squeezing yourself into a place where you really want to be, getting into the game and playing as hard as you can, as long as you can. And trust me, in the vitally important game of figuring out who you really are and who you really, really want to be, there are very few rules and no referees."
Students also heard from one of their own during the ceremony. Graduate Cameron Wilcox read an essay to the crowd that had won him the school's senior essay contest. It focused on optimism, given the state of the world today.
The American dream is one of unbreakable spirit, of rebuilding in the face of tragedy, Wilcox said. He contrasted the heartbreak students felt reading in the newspaper that many students were abandoning their school for other options with the spirit students mustered in cheering on their basketball players to a state title this year.
"The future will cast us as underdogs, but if my time at this school has taught me anything, it's that we're pretty good at it," Wilcox said.
The school also honored valedictorian Elijah Martin and salutatorian Bridget Matsas, though the two did not speak. Martin will attend Tufts University, and Matsas is headed to the United States Military Academy at West Point.
In addition to the class of 2013, the school honored alumni who graduated 50 years ago that day, the class of 1963.
Among the 1963 alumni in attendance was Jane Warren Grube, the mother of the academy's current associate headmistress Holly Singleton, who brought along classmates Lauren Anderson, of Eastford, Jeri Lee Carpenter Musumeci, of Florida, and Kerstin Okeson Forrester, of Thompson. All the women said they were excited to see how the school had grown since their graduation, when their class had just 48 students.
"It's a nice feeling to come back and see the graduates here," Anderson said.
Musumeci, an honorary member of the school's board of trustees, was excited to be able to give her granddaughter, Mikayla Musumeci, her diploma during the ceremony.