Israeli technology puts Dallas cowboys in their place

October 27, 2010 - 9:20 AM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, Crime, General, Technology 

We all know that the long arms and eyes of Israeli security technology and know how reach well beyond our own borders. But just how far is demonstrated in this story from Dallas, Texas.

Evidently, some members of the cleaning crew at the ASIS 2010 security trade show earlier this month in Dallas, forgot that it was actually a security technology conference they were working at, and, apparently without a hint of irony, decided to steal some of the electronics from the floor overnight.

Several exhibitors arrived on the second morning of the show to discover parts of their display – the expensive parts – were missing.

“I realized the laptop that ran our radar surveillance system was gone,” said Trish Logue, the marketing manager for exhibitor Moog QuickSet.

She talked to some of her neighboring exhibitors to see if they were missing anything and when she got to the Milestone Systems, she discovered that they had surveillance cameras set up to demonstrate their XProtect IP video management software.

They immediately fired up the Milestone video from an Axis camera that was pointing at the Moog QuickSet booth all night, initiated the Israeli-developed video synopsis solutions called BriefCam, an award-winning search facility embedded in the Milestone XProtect Smart Client.

Milestone videos theft at ASIS 2010 from Fredrik Wallberg on Vimeo.

It enabled them to review 10 hours of video from the previous night in just minutes, and what did they see? Two individuals from the cleaning staff stealing the Moog laptop. The BriefCam presented a summary of the culprits’ entry and movements with exact time stamps. The video surveillance helped the Dallas police positively identify the culprits and the laptop was returned to its rightful owner.

To the surprise of the police, not only did the thieves produce the purloined laptop and an iPAD, but several bags full of stolen items from another trade show that had taken place weeks earlier! It turned out that several thieves had been carrying out this criminal activity for their own ‘fringe benefits’ to the normal night work.

In addition to its recognition by the Dallas police detectives, BriefCam has been awarded the Wall Street Journal 2010 Technology Innovation Award for Physical Security, the 2010 IFSEC Security Industry Award for Best CCTV System, and named to the Red Herring Top 100 Europe and CNBC Europe’s 25 Most Creative Companies lists.

We may not all be dumb enough to attempt to steal equipment from a security trade fair, but those of us who are should be forewarned that you never know when you’re going to collide with the long arm of Israeli technology.

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Foto Friday – Israel from on high

July 26, 2009 - 10:23 PM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Foto Friday, General, Technology 

Every minute of every day, eyes in the sky are watching and recording earth. The resulting images — only a fraction of which are on view to the public — are often incomprehensible and dull to the untrained eye, but sometimes you come across some that are fascinating. For example, this image from the NASA Visible Earth catalogue of a Saharan dust storm covering our region:
Saharan_dust_storm_2003094.1050.1km

Or the beaches of Tel Aviv, as seen from the International Space Station:
ISS017-E-5423_TA_beaches

It’s s bit shocking to realize the level of detail that satellite photography can achieve. For example, let’s check out the weather, shall we?, courtesy of EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites.

Europe-Africa Middle East
Thermal IR (showing clouds)
Europe-Africa Middle East
Visible wavelength
Europe-Africa Middle East

More weather information can be found at Israel Weather and more satellite images of Israel can be found at the wonderful Israel Science and Technology Homepage, a great resource.

Israel, as the ninth nation in the world to launch a satellite into orbit (the Ofeq 1 in 1988), has its own storied history of space surveillance — and while many of those stories will remain untold for a long, long time, at least one commercial venture has emerged: SpaceCom, whose Amos satellites provide communications services to a range of TV and radio broadcasters around the world.
KAZAKHSTAN-BAIKONUR-SOYUZ-FREGAT-AMOS-2

The Amos 3 went into orbit last year, and launches are planned for 2010, 2011 and 2012. This image, of the Amos 2 satellite launch in 2003, is testament to the vision and tenacity of its founders — principally Meir Amit, a military hero and former head of Mossad who passed away at the age of 88 and was buried last week. A tribute to Amit can be found here.

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