Improved building system technology is making today’s smart buildings safer, more energy efficient, and more attractive to tenants. But ESD, now Stantec Studio Leader and Senior Security Consultant Coleman Wolf says building automated system (BAS) improvements could come with new vulnerabilities. (Read more about intelligent building security.)
Access control systems connected to the Internet are vulnerable to cyber intrusions. How can we protect them?
Coleman Wolf discussed the topic in the article “Assessing Cyber Risks to Your Access Control System” in Security Management magazine.
“Older access control systems were not meant to be tied to the building network or the organization’s network,” said Wolf, senior security consultant for ESD and a member of the ASIS International IT Security Council.
Attackers are often looking to infiltrate the network and then move within it to gain access to more sensitive or valuable information.
“Maybe there are employee databases where they could steal information,” Wolf says. “Or they could use that access to spread ransomware, where files and systems could be encrypted and held hostage—forcing the organization to pay to free up that information.”
The article was done in tandem with the recent webinar he co-presented.