7 Access Control system Trends

When we think of access control, in a building from decades ago, we imagine a doorman or someone who wrote down his data and allowed him access. Over the years, this identification has been made through plastic cards, many of which we use today. On the other hand, nowadays, with the advent of new technologies, we have biometric authentication, and facial, among others. Certainly, access to control systems has been adapted to the different needs of generations that increasingly require easy, agile, secure and flexible solutions. Some of the trends in this sector are listed below.

1. The movement towards mobility: The emergence of technologies such as short-range communications (Near Field Communications, NFC) and others are driving the migration of access control technologies to mobile platforms. The same basic methodology for access control systems that we have used for decades can be integrated into smartphones and other mobile devices, with which we can eliminate keys and cards to open the doors or drawers of practically any place. In the end, how many times have you forgotten your keys or your card? Probably a few times. And your cell phone? Never!

2. The convergence between physical and logical accesses: Moving physical access (such as opening a door) and logical access (such as computer login) to a single platform is creating more capable and unified identity solutions. Convergence improves security by allowing a single smart card to support multiple authentication methods, while keeping organizations compliant with their regulatory requirements. All of the above to enforce policies and lead toward consolidation of audit records across the entire enterprise. Additionally, convergence reduces costs by consolidating tasks, including strong authentication at workstations, and opens up new market opportunities for robust logical access by making deployment easier and more accessible for all types of businesses, including small and medium.

3. The evolution of smart cards: The rapid growth in the adoption of smart card technology will continue, due to the convenience and cost of having solutions in a single card that provide the elements to increase the use of smart card technology. As they are used for more applications, smart cards contain more and more information that must be protected. Cards need more elements of privacy protection and, at the same time, they must be able to validate and secure identities. This has created an increasing demand for multiple layers of card security, including two-factor authentication to validate identities, as well as biometric templates that are stored within the card.

4. The need for sustainable solutions: Organizations are under great pressure to reduce costs while improving their environmental responsibility. The latest access control systems, security printers, and Managed Print Services (MPS) programs help meet these goals. The choice of materials for cards and readers plays an extremely important role, which is why many readers and security printing solutions are designed from the ground up for better energy efficiency.

5. Increased use of outsourcing: We are seeing the continuation of a trend in outsourcing services, as more end users look to software as a service (SaaS) and solutions for access control based on the web that are offered by traditional solution providers for physical access control and the IT channel. This trend also extends to credentialing services, which are offered through web-based portals and which provide customers, in a simple and secure way, upload and communicate data, photos, as well as any other type of information. while reducing the costs and complexity of maintaining and operating a corporate credentialing infrastructure.

6. Increasing focus on integrated access systems: Increasingly, access control systems are based on standards that are open and interoperable. The United States government is conducting standards-based protocols for use in embedded systems, where such integration is recommended by FICAM and SP800-116, which will shape the systems to come.

7. Introduction of new standards and legislation: regarding access control has been implemented in several countries and especially in some vertical markets, such as the government, all to increase security. For example, in Latin America, there is already a law in Brazil (REP which stands for that is currently in the approval process and that requires organizations to follow specific time attendance machine requirements.

Trends in secure identification

According to the information provided by HID Global, these trends for identification focus on significant changes in physical and logical access control, secure card issuance, identity verification, visitor management, and electronic identification. (eID) and secure asset monitoring.

HID projections, made by the Chief Technology Officer at HID Global, also anticipate a reduction in the use of passwords to protect resources, as organizations expand the use of strong authentication methods throughout their IT infrastructure and beyond the gates. This can also accelerate the convergence of physical and logical access control, which will promote a smoother experience for the user interacting with forms of cloud, data and door protection.

“As a continuation of the predictions for the previous year, we are sharing the main trends that we believe will shape the market and beyond. We are living in exciting times as the industry continues to make it even easier for organizations to improve security, adapt to ever-changing threats and simplify daily work life for their employees.

The following are the main trends:

·         The industry is rapidly moving from static, proprietary access control architectures to more secure, open, and adaptable solutions that meet customers' desire for new products and technologies that empower their businesses.

·         Integrating physical access control with IT security will bring new benefits and change the way organizations work.

·         Achieving strong authentication will continue to grow in importance given the changing environment of electronic security threats. Such authentication will migrate to the door and will include other factors such as biometrics and gesture technology.

·         Strong authentication will increasingly be implemented using a multi-dimensional approach.

·         Access control with mobile devices will continue to unfold in stages and will employ various wireless technologies.

·         We will enter a new era of Near Field Communication (NFC) authentication services.

·         The migration of intelligence to the door will continue, additionally IP architectures and future functions of smartphones in access control will be adopted.

·         Advances in printing and encoding will simplify card personalization, while accelerating productivity for more durable cards that can be safely generated from anywhere, anytime.

·         The use of visitor management systems will continue to spread beyond businesses, to schools, hospitals and other institutions where notorious incidents have occurred that highlight the fact that security should not be relied on to paper records.

·         Multipurpose electronic identification (eID) credentials will be increasingly deployed around the world.

For this year, users can expect many advances in the market, from the way they carry credentials to the way they interact with access control systems.