Securing Your Business with Cameras

Summary: Security cameras are commonplace now, and they are simple to use and can even help resolve issues at your business. Steve Ripper and Dave Hodgdon discuss how to utilize security cameras at your workplace. Listen or read more to find out about security cameras.

Mike:  WTSN’S Morning Information Center, all powered by Portsmouth Computer Group, with convenient offices in Dover and Portsmouth. Check ’em out, PCGIT.com, for great IT service and customer support. It’s all part of the Tech Tuesday, and speaking of Tech Tuesday, what a great segue.

Steve Ripper: Right.

Mike:  Our studio audience, Steve Ripper and Dave Hodgdon from Portsmouth Computer Group join me again. First of all, I gotta wish you guys a Happy New Year because I haven’t seen you [crosstalk]

Steve: Mike, Happy New Year to you, too.

Mike:  I haven’t seen you in a few weeks because of the holidays and stuff.

Dave Hodgdon: It was a three-week layoff. We missed this.

Mike:  We put Tech Tuesday on hiatus ’cause I went away for the holidays.

Dave: But the demand, we heard the demand out there. They had to have us back, so here we are.

Mike:  Tell me something good you did over the holidays. You went skiing, Dave, huh?

Dave: I went skiing, just a lot of time with the family. That’s all you can ask for the holidays, just quality —

Mike:  — That was nice. How ’bout you, Steve?

Steve: Family up in Vermont. It was really beautiful up there.

Mike:  Do you ski?

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Mike:  Yeah.

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Mike:  I’ve only skied twice in my life, and that was enough for me.

Steve: The trees coming at you fast.

Mike:  I don’t know. I just . . . it’s not one of my sports that I really embrace.

Dave: I put a helmet on now. I feel like I’m aggressive. I can go faster again now, so . . .

Mike:  There you go. And you go on the mountains all the time?

Dave: Oh, yeah. Always.

Mike:  You don’t go on the kiddie slopes, Dave?

Dave: No kiddie slopes. I don’t go. What do they call it? The little pad that goes to the —

Mike:  The snowplow. The snowplow track.

Dave: No, not the snowplow, but you get on that little track, and it takes you.

Mike:  Oh, what is that? Is that something new? I don’t see it. [crosstalk]

Steve: You would find one where you don’t have to actually ski.

Dave: It’s almost like a treadmill, and they bring you off the mountain when you don’t know how to ski. Yeah.

Mike:  Oh, really? They bring you off the mountain?

Dave: Yes. Well, like all five feet, yeah.

Mike:  And just get a little closer to your microphone there, Dave.

Dave: Got it.

Who’s Watching Your DVR and Camera?

Mike:  So today, I wanna let people know that they can get in touch with you guys. You guys are all about security and the latest on keeping your computers and your systems and your servers all safe and stuff like that. We talk about physical security and how it can be integrated into the network, and today we’re gonna talk a little bit about DVRs and cameras, Steve. Is Big Brother watching? What’s going on?

Steve: Yeah, so today, we wanna talk a little bit about . . . everyone knows what security, like physical security, means. They’re already familiar with security systems, locks on the door, cameras — so there’s not that much that we need to talk about that specifically. But what we wanna talk about is how it integrates with your network.

There’s some really nice new technologies out there now where you can, right from your phone, see what’s going on inside your company. You can watch the delivery guy delivering stuff. That’s a really big thing now. You’ve seen deliveries. We’re seeing in the news, packages getting stolen from doors.

Mike:  Oh, I know. [crosstalk] amazing.

Steve: So, it’s gotten really simple. We use a product called Lorex. Right? So, it’s an all-in-one solution. We put it in. It’s got the DVR, the cameras. It’s really simple. It all works well together, but really, we talk so much about security, especially on this show, we’re talking about passwords, we’re talking about web security, email, anti-virus, but what we never talk about is actually locking the doors and seeing what’s going on in your company, right?

You do all this stuff, you spend all this money on these servers and the technology, you spend money with us, and then you just have a regular lock on the door, right? No idea who’s going in and out, no idea what tracking, what logging, no cameras so that you could look back what happened last week, so it’s kinda crazy that way, so we’re gonna talk about that.

Securing Your Business with Cameras

Mike:  Dave, what type of problems do businesses usually have if they don’t have the right security? What type of examples have you had people come to you to talk about?

Dave: Theft, definitely one. Could be harassment issues, something going on [crosstalk]

Mike:  Really? Wow. Okay.

Dave: Steve brought up about the tracking of the delivery. I find it helpful if I have subcontractors coming in over the weekend, the cleaning company, the painter, the GEC, you’re actually able to know when they came in, when they left for time records. You also have the ability to see what’s going on. I’ve noticed three or four times where, we’re on a dead-end road, sometimes the police are down there, that a lot of cars are doing donuts. They come down there and with the cameras outside, we’re able to see who’s coming in the parking lot and causing trouble, someone at the mailbox trying to take your mail, but having all of that application right on your phone, that any time someone’s opening the door, I know who’s coming.

Any time they leave, I know who’s leaving, and having that ability to view. It’s not that you wanna be Big Brother, Mike, but it’s just there for safety, as Steve said, security, just to protect yourself.

Mike:  You know, go ahead, Steve.

Steve: And the apps have really matured. I think that’s the biggest thing that’s changed. Like I said, a lot of people are aware of what an alarm system does for their company or maybe what some cameras do, and many people have cameras in their homes, but the apps that you can put on your iPhone, your iPad, your Android phone, the web, the web interface on the PC has really matured. It’s really easy to use.

So, I’ve seen Dave just, we’re out, and we were at a company function, and I saw Dave just take his phone out and quickly saw what was going on in the hallway at work, just ’cause it got an alert, motion sensing, things like that, so he was able to see what was going on, the cleaning person going in, so really easy to use, really easy to install.

The Importance of Cameras in the Workplace

Mike:  Interesting. And do people have to be aware of that, too? Is there sort of a disclaimer that people, when they work at a certain spot, that the cameras are in use and stuff like that?

Dave: It was a very weird —

Mike:  — I kinda wondered about that.

Dave: — feeling when we first put up. Everyone thought we’re here to spy on you. That wasn’t the case at all. It’s really to protect you if someone comes in the building and they’re causing a threat to the [crosstalk]

Mike:  Did you explain that to your workers and coworkers and stuff?

Dave: Yeah. And you do wanna put it into what we call the acceptable use policy. Here, we are going back to the part of the business that you always need to speak about, but they need to know why it’s there. It’s not there to cause any, “We’re worried about this particular person,” but the value of having, if something happened, like in the inventory room, at least we have a record of it, Mike, and it’s nice to know we’re giving access through the key fobs that Steve said only certain people can get it in, but at least if something happens, we have, “Well, you were in the inventory room. What happened?”

Mike:  Yeah. Yeah.

Dave: But it was, did you feel odd about it when the cameras went up?

Steve: No, I mean, so I go out to a lot of companies where there’s cameras already, so I’m used to having them around. I mean, I do work for a company where they had a whole issue, two employees had a little bit of an altercation about their cars in the parking lot, and the company that I do the work for had camera footage of what happened in the parking lot, and they were able to kinda mediate that whole thing and talk about what happened instead of the whole “he said, she said” that was going on, so, you see things like that, but no, Dave, I go around.

There’s cameras everywhere now, and we don’t even live in a state like England where there’s CCTV cameras everywhere, like telephone poles, lights, and everything, but you’re seeing more and more of it, and it doesn’t make sense to not at this point. You know? You should also have locks on your doors, maybe have key fob access, so that way, the door can always stay locked and

Mike:  What does that actually mean?

Key Fobs Make Access Easy — For Those Who Are Authorized

Steve: So key fob access is where you don’t really need a key anymore to open the door. The door is always locked, and then you provide your employees with a fob that goes on their keychain, right? And then all you do is your beep that in.

So, we contract with security companies that can put this in for you and help you with that, but what that allows you to do is only the employees can get in. The key doesn’t even work anymore.

So, if you’re a company, especially if you’re a company that doesn’t need to have a front door open to the public, if all of your doors, then why are you leaving your doors open to any kind of altercation, any kind of bad person, and kind of person who might have a bad thing to say or a problem? Just lock all your doors, and then give your key fobs. That will allow them to . . .

Keyless entry is really what we’re talking about. They can beep, the door will open, they’ll come in, and you as an owner or an office manager have a log. You know exactly. It literally can tell you weeks back who came in and when, who beeped that door, so you could use it as who’s coming in late to work. You could use it, who’s actually putting the extra time in. Right? But you also know what happened on Saturday if you’re typically closed on that day. You have a log of who came in and who came out or if the door ever got used.

Keeping the Community Secure with Cameras

Mike:  You know, a couple of things that we mentioned in the beginning of our talk today is that, in the old days, you’d have to sign for packages. Now, most packages you get, they just leave ’em. You know? So, it doesn’t surprise me that certain people are stealing packages off people’s porches and doorways. First of all, that, for personal use, and the other thing, you talk about crimes in the area.

Most everybody, if someone is abducted for some reason on a sidewalk, people have cameras outside on their businesses, you know? And police departments and legal officials, they use these videos to find this person. You go back to the Boston Marathon bombers. Look at all the footage they had.

Dave: Oh, that was unbelievable.

Steve: Yeah.

Mike:  Almost every business on that stretch of Boylston Street saw those two guys . . .

Dave: Right.

Mike:  . . . In different positions, so I guess there’s a value to, not just for your own safety and security of your own business, but the overall safety and security of people.

Controlling Costs with Digital Security

Dave: I think the bigger part was for our employees. You just never know if something’s gonna go wrong, so I think it added value of having the protection of the doors being locked, granting who can get in, and having the cameras. As Steve mentioned, one of his . . . there was an altercation. That really — it really helped out.

Another big add-on that we did, which worked out great was the HVAC tie-on. Everyone’s fighting for the heat, the cooling, so once it notices someone’s not there for a while, evening or weekends, it’s able to go down or up, so I’m able to, through my phone, control the HVAC, help control costs.

Steve: This is things only owners care about. This is this segment, “Things That Only Owners Care About.”

Mike:  I mean, you don’t get Alexa to do that?

Dave: Ah, [crosstalk], but Alexa’s not doing that, but it’s nice it’s all tying in the system on the same app, so [crosstalk]

Mike:  Is it? I mean, you guys are on the forefront of all this technology. Does it amaze you, everything that you read in the trades and stuff that you guys use and stuff? Does it amaze you? I mean, where are we going now? I mean, what’s the —

Dave: Just look in the last 20 years. It is unbelievable, and in the last 10 years, just since the iPhone and just these last two or three years, everything in this whole cloud movement, and we’ve had some discussions here, we’re not gonna be seeing servers inside the building anymore, but we’re still dealing with people. We still wanna be productive. We wanna be safe, so that’s what PCG’s about, just trying to make the best option for [crosstalk]

Mike:  But overall, all the things that you guys recommend, it also increases business productivity and business awareness and business safety and just security of what people need now because it’s too easy for hackers to get into these things. You gotta be one step ahead of them.

Dave: Absolutely.

Mike:  Yeah.

Steve: The biggest thing I see coming, I mean, just in a one-sentence move, Mike, you can’t lose your phone anymore. Do not lose your phone.

Mike:  Oh, I know.

Steve: Your phone is just . . . and as every year goes by, your phone is . . . so, I just talked about a key fob. Eventually, the key fob’s not even gonna be on my key chain. I probably won’t even have keys. We’ll all just start our car from our phone, right? That’s coming. I’m gonna scan in the door with my phone.

So, every year, I look at my phone. I’m like, “Oh, my God. I gotta know where that thing is at all times. Like I’m gonna . . . ”

Mike:  Yeah, so what’s next? I’m gonna go back to like a chain. Maybe I’m gonna handcuff it to my hand or something?

Steve: No, your phone is your life. Your phone is your life now.

Dave: It is. My son got me a little thing to put at the back of the phone so I do know where it is when you misplace it. Yeah, it finds it.

Mike:  There you go. All right [crosstalk]. Dave and Steve, all part of the Portsmouth Computer Group. Check out their website, PCGIT.com. They’re all part of Tech Tuesday here, and they’re powering the Morning Information Center here on WTSN. Check ’em out. Portsmouth, 603-431-4121, and in Dover, 603-750-0101, as well.

Thank you, guys. Good to see you again. Happy New Year.

Steve: It was good to see you, Mike.

Dave: My pleasure.

Steve: Happy New Year.