Virtual Security Guards

New Normals

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we do many things and it remains to be seen whether these changes are temporary or whether they are ‘new normals’. The majority of these changes are things which were evolving anyway, but the pandemic (and our voluntary or enforced response to it), has certainly accelerated things. For example, the use of contactless payments instead of cash was increasingly common before the pandemic, but now it is almost unheard of for a vendor to not provide the facility for card payments. Another example is online work meetings - are traditional meetings sat around a boardroom table now a thing of the past?

Utilising Technology

With most changes focussed around the principle of less human contact (social distancing), the security industry is no different to any other industry and must find ways to maintain a high standard whilst incorporating these changes. The concept of utilising technology alongside physical manpower is nothing new to the security industry, however, it was always more a case of bolstering manpower with technical security rather than replacing it altogether.

Virtual Security Guards

Could virtual security guards be set to replace physical manpower? In the USA, there are numerous companies offering the services of virtual security robots who can patrol areas and collect vast amounts of data and even confront potential hostile persons. However, here in the UK, the industry seems to have stopped short of full-blow robots and concentrated more on the ‘access control’ aspects - for example, a secure gate entry system which can read your biometrics before granting you access.

Vulnerabilities

Historically, two of the main downsides to human security guards was trust and reliability - people could be ‘paid off’ or might fall asleep on the job. Virtual security guards don’t carry either of these risks, but at the same time, are significantly vulnerable to the threat from cyber attack which could well result in the same outcome.

Combinations

What is most likely is that for the foreseeable future, the best solution is a combination of both physical manpower and high spec technology. Yes we may see the use of security robots, but they will be used by manpower (in a similar way drones have been used) to enhance their capability rather than as a replacement.

The Perfect Solution

A perfect solution might be to combine the strong points of both humans and robots. So, robots which are controlled by humans but which also have built-in programming to mitigate the risk of human error - say monitoring a human for signs of tiredness to prevent them ‘sleeping on the job’.

Here to Stay

Virtual Security Guards and robots are undoubtedly here to stay, and will form a vital element of any future security plan but it’s very unlikely we’ll see the end of human manpower in the security industry any time soon.