Cybersecurity in prisons and correctional facilities

In today’s networked reality, the convergence between physical and cybersecurity in prisons is growing and adapting to include more and more connected devices. Indeed, developing and implementing effective cyber defense strategies is becoming critical also in jails and correctional facilities as they impact on the operations of the guards, the video surveillance and other security systems.

Cybersecurity in prisons means monitoring the vulnerabilities and health status of the security devices 24/7

The vulnerabilities and weaknesses of the prisons’ physical security equipment and networks, could be exploited by hackers to develop cyberattacks with potentially disastrous results like, for example, shutting down the video surveillance.

Ensuring the security of prisons and jails means allowing restricted access to many areas, monitoring the perimeter crossing, detecting intrusions or potential breaches, filtering out false alarms, etc. It also means managing closed networks with high performance endpoint security devices that are continuously manned to ensure the health status of the security devices 24/7. In short, it means driving “paranoid” security and compliance to rules and programs 24/7.

Seamless integration of Physical Security and Cybersecurity in prisons and correctional facilities

Nelysis has developed a unique system, Vanguard, to precisely meet both Cyber- and Physical security needs in jails and correctional facilities. Nelysis’s NCM solution visualizes the networks and their various elements to identify a wide range of suspicious activities and cyber-threats; Vanguard then notifies the PSIM/command of any change or network intrusions in order to automatically mitigate their effects and ensure the continuity and protection of the prison’s operations.

By providing seamless integration of Physical and Cybersecurity in prisons, Vanguard allows to both reduce human errors and appropriately offer a redundant approach for total security. This patent-based system specifically developed for early detection, warning and prevention of cyber threats on Physical Security elements and Control Systems networks allows to monitor all the vulnerabilities and health status of the all the security devices 24/7.

The benefits of using Vanguard for 24/7 cybersecurity in prisons

Vanguard is particularly suitable for the security of prisons and correctional facilities for the following reasons:

• Vanguard continuously monitors the physical security devices and the control network exposed to the collapse of critical systems, the neutralization of edge devices, the disruption of operations by some hostile takeover or by internal activities such as a wrong setup or some guard’s mistake.
• Vanguard analyses the network structure, identifies and tracks all the network elements. The network elements are identified via the manufacturer data, the network parameters and the physical/logical topology.
• Vanguard identifies any change such as any unauthorized Physical monitoring of the infrastructure connections, any damage or connection to the optical fibers or copper cables, etc.
• Vanguard is able to prevent the intrusion of malicious actors into the existing network, searching and retrieving significant data before the attack on any monitored network component could actually happen.
• Vanguard is easy to install and use. Unlike other solutions offering IT networks protection, Vanguard does not require any high level network or cyber-network knowledge: the system is accessible to notify and send alerts to the existing management software (PSIM/VMS) of the prison or correctional facility.
• Vanguard provides built-in post-event analysis functionalities. This advanced NCM system allows to store several months of traffic information for fast and easy built-in post-event analysis.
• 24/7 real time monitoring, control and powerful protection: Vanguard is the prison’s gatekeeper who never sleeps!

For more information on Vanguard solution for Cybersecurity in Prisons