67 MPs have called for the Chinese surveillance equipment firms Hikvision and Dahua to be banned from operating in the UK, citing security concerns and calling into question the ethics of both companies.

The group represents as broad a range of the political spectrum as one could expect, from right-wing eurosceptics like Steve Baker MP to Labour peer and director of Liberty Baroness Chakrabarti, leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey and the Greens’ Caroline Lucas MP.

The civil liberties and privacy campaigning organisation Big Brother Watch published a report in February documenting the spread of surveillance equipment manufactured in China throughout the UK.

Of the public bodies who responded to their FOI requests, 60.8% use Chinese-made CCTV and 89% of these use Hikvision equipment specifically. Additionally, 12% of this figure uses Dahua equipment.

Both Hikvision and Dahua have been alleged by MPs to be the primary operators of CCTV in Uyghur internment camps operated by the Chinese government, part of ongoing acts within China that human rights group Amnesty International calls crimes against humanity, and the US government officially calls genocide.

Moreover, last year the LA Times broke a story alleging that Dahua has developed facial-recognition technology that can sort by race, with specific capabilities to warn operators when it detects Uyghur individuals.

The use of technology from companies with ties to the Chinese government has recently prompted widespread concern. BT is currently removing Huawei from the UK’s 5G network after a 2020 decision and the FCC last week cited major privacy concerns over the popular app TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, urging Apple and Google to ban it from their respective app stores.

The Foreign Affairs Committee published a report in 2021 specifically naming Hikvision and Dahua as companies whose equipment “should not be permitted to operate within the UK,” calling them companies “known to be associated with the Xinjiang atrocities.” Last month, the Department for Work and Pensions announced that it will remove Hikvision CCTV cameras from its offices.

Professor Fraser Sampson, the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, wrote a letter to the Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP last month concerning the risks to UK ethics and security posed by Chinese surveillance equipment. Within, he stated:

“[T]he publicly available evidence tells me that some of these companies - notably Hikvision and Dahua - simply cannot be trusted, partly because of concerns about the role they and their technology are believed to have played in perpetuating the appalling treatment of Uyghur Muslims as set out in the report of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee last year (and recognised in the government’s formal response), but also because of those companies’ absolute refusal to engage with even the most cursory level of public accountability in response to those concerns.”

In a statement given to It Pro, a Hikvision spokesperson rejected claims made against them:

“CCTV has always played a critical role in the UK in the fight against crime and terrorism. Hikvision is proud of the role we play in that.

“The UK also has fringe groups who would like to see a massive reduction of CCTV in the UK who are willing to throw allegations around about CCTV, and who would lie to demonise Hikvision.

“Hikvision has always worked with government bodies to provide solutions to the UK’s CCTV requirements.”

This article has been updated to include additional comments from Hikvision.

If you need to capture, store and manage large archives of security camera footage, the DVA3221 is for you. While it may look like a regular four-bay desktop NAS, it’s designed and configured as a one-stop surveillance hub, so you can simply plug in your IP cameras and go.

In terms of hardware, its key feature is a preinstalled Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card. This provides the horsepower for deep video analytics tasks, allowing you to track people, employ live facial recognition and do plenty more across multiple video feeds.

The DVA3221 is also laughably easy to deploy. After slotting in four 14TB WD Red Pro NAS hard disks and firing up Synology’s web discovery portal, there was almost nothing left for us to do. The portal located the appliance, installed the latest DSM 6.2 software, set up a suitable RAID array, loaded the Nvidia drivers, set up Synology’s own Surveillance Station app and created a shared video storage folder.

Connecting to your IP cameras is handled by the Surveillance Station software. This had no problems finding and identifying our motley mix of Axis, D-Link and EnGenius cameras – the Synology software works with over 7,900 models. The price includes an eight-camera licence, but the appliance can work with up to 32 feeds. The standard live view scales to accommodate however many streams you have set up, but you’re free to switch to a different layout or create your own.

With our cameras connected, we started out by enabling the people-counting feature for a 2MP dome camera mounted on the ceiling by the lab door. It took us a few goes to successfully define the detection zone, but in around ten minutes the software was successfully logging all foot traffic. We could then pull up reports tracking daily, monthly and yearly footfall, and you can also use this feature for live crowd control, triggering an alert if the number of people who have entered exceeds those who’ve exited by more than a preset limit.

Facial recognition proved easier to set up. We began by importing photos of the people we wanted to track, then assigned each one to an account and configured a monitoring zone in the camera view. As soon as a subject entered that zone, the display zeroed in on their face and tagged the box with their name. Unrecognised individuals were flagged up as unknown, and we were invited to import them into the database; the only hitch, for now, is that we found the system had zero ability to identify anyone wearing a face mask.

Person and vehicle detection works by letting you define up to three polygonal zones on the preview screen, and warns you if anyone enters them. A customisable small object threshold stops birds and the like triggering an alert, while a minimum duration time in seconds tells the software to alert you only if someone lingers in a particular place.

Intrusion detection works in a similar way: for this, you draw a line in the preview window and an alert is triggered if anything crosses it. You can pick whether you’re only interested in people crossing to one side or want to track movement in both directions.

Since the footage you capture will almost inevitably contain personally identifiable information, the DVA3221 also includes some smart features to help you ensure GDPR compliance. The whole system can be isolated on a private network, video storage shares can be encrypted and access can be locked down with two-factor authentication, while Synology’s Evidence Integrity Authenticator app can digitally sign recordings to help prove that footage hasn’t been tampered with.

Yes, you could do all of this with a bog-standard NAS, given the right software and a graphics card – but the DVA3221 is a lot easier to deploy and it’s good value. Moreover, it can still double up as a general-purpose NAS, making it an almost irresistible proposition for SMBs wanting an in-house video surveillance solution without the hassle.

Synology DVA3221 specifications

If you want to implement professional video surveillance as an SMB, you could be faced with a big shopping list: you’ll need to acquire a suitable VMS (video management software) product and factor in the cost of a host system, an OS and associated hardware. If that doesn’t sound appealing, however, you could always just cut out the middle men and use Synology’s DVA3219, which offers a complete surveillance platform out of the box.

The DVA3219 takes full advantage of Synology’s Surveillance Station app, which comes as standard on all its appliances. Crucial differences are the DVA3219 includes a pack of eight additional IP camera licenses (to bolster the single license included with Surveillance Station by default), as well as an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU card. It’s also the only model that includes Synology’s Deep Video Analytics (DVA).

DVA offers four features that need GPU power to process: people counting, enhanced intrusion detection, no-idle zones and deep motion detection. People counting requires a ceiling mounted IP camera to conduct head counts of people passing underneath while enhanced intrusion detection allows you to draw a perimeter line anywhere in a camera view so anything that crosses it will trigger an event.

No-idle zones trigger events if objects remain in a predefined zone for too long or leave it when they shouldn’t. Deep motion detection tasks monitor selected areas and filter out movements such as rain or swaying trees to stop them constantly triggering alerts.

Synology DVA3219 review: Hardware and deployment

Costing nearly £1,300, the DV3219 looks good value when stacked up against the completion. The Axis S1116 MT surveillance appliance, for example, comes with a single 8TB HDD and 16 camera licenses included but costs nearly £3,000.

The appliance is well built and very quiet, making it suitable for small offices. At the rear, you have four Gigabit, dual USB 3 and two eSATA storage expansion ports but the HDMI, DisplayPort and DVI outputs on the Nvidia card are hidden behind a blanking plate.

Deployment is swift: we fitted three 14TB Seagate IronWolf NAS drives, used Synology’s discovery web portal to install the DSM software and created a RAID5 storage pool from the Storage Manager app. You’ll need to install the Surveillance Station 8.2 app from the Package Center but this is easily done and the camera license pack is automatically applied.

The DVA3219 has extra levels of versatility as it runs the standard DSM software so every Synology app is available. If your surveillance needs are modest, it can also act as a NAS, IP SAN and backup server.

Synology DVA3219 review: Deep Video Analytics

The DVA app is ready and waiting in the Surveillance Station web console and to test people counting, we used a D-Link 2MP dome camera mounted over the lab entrance. It requires a steady mouse hand as you create a detection zone in the DVA task preview screen, shape and position it and then define a head size.

Initially, it would only count people entering the lab but after a few adjustments, we had had it logging all entries and exits and could view graphs of daily, monthly and yearly footfall. A heat-map feature would have increased its value in retail environments; rivals with this capability provide a coloured map overlay showing customer dwelling habits, allowing shops to see how different areas of their store are performing.

For deep motion detection tasks, you’ll need to define up to two polygonal detection zones, each with individual sensitivity settings. Using a D-Link external bullet camera, we deliberately set the zone to include some trees and found that even in windy conditions, their leafy waves didn’t trigger motion detection.

It gets even easier with intrusion detection; just draw a line in the task preview window to denote a digital barrier, and anything crossing it will trigger alerts. Likewise with no-idle tasks: create a zone, choose a dwell time in seconds and decide whether a trigger is activated if something enters or leaves it.

Another useful feature is crowd control where a people counting task can trigger an alert if entries minus exits exceeds a specific number. These all make the appliance very versatile although it’s annoying that Synology limits the number of DVA tasks to four.

Synology DVA3219 review: Standard surveillance features

The DVA3219 supports up to 32 IP camera feeds and apart from DVA, offers all the same surveillance features as those found on other Synology appliances. Recording options are outstanding as you can set selected cameras to record to a daily schedule, when motion detection events have been triggered, or to just record continuously.

If your cameras support multiple video streams, you can apply different recording settings to each one and use the dynamic option to automatically change the recording stream if motion detection as triggered. It’s easy to manage your video vault too. For each camera, you choose which volume to send its recordings to, set the number of days they should be retained for and control the size of their archive.

A good surveillance solution is also measured by its search facilities and the TimeLine app provides a wealth of features so you don’t have to wade through recordings. Choose to view events such as motion detection for a selected camera and its calendar view will highlight those days when they were triggered, with a slider bar alongside for moving to a specific time.

The Smart Search feature in Synology’s Windows desktop client goes further still, allowing you to look for motion, missing or foreign object, no-idle zone and camera tampering events. You can fine-tune searches by drawing a detection zone within the camera view and only look for events that occurred within this space.

Synology DVA3219 review: Verdict

The DVA3219 makes sense if you want the additional deep video analytics features in the Surveillance Station app but if not, you’re better off with one of Synology’s cheaper, non-GPU-equipped model. It is comparatively good value though, so if you want a brainy surveillance solution that can be easily deployed, the DVA3219 is hard to beat.

One of the most endearing things about the Raspberry Pi is how it can be used as the computational brain for all most any tech project. Its open-source nature means it has been used to create tiny PCs to being used as a form of Hadoop data base cluster; there's a huge swathe of projects that have used the micro computer at their core.

For the security conscious, the Raspberry Pi can be used to power a fledgeling home security camera system, providing one is willing to get involved in a little bit of DIY coding.

Choosing your hardware

With the Raspberry Pi you can create a basic security camera to tinker with, but there's also scope to create a more fully-fledged system should you so desire.

That means there's an element of choice in how you approach a security camera project; you'll not only need to decide which Raspberry Pi model to go for, which will dictate the size of the camera system, but you'll also need to consider how it will connect to your home network and what type of camera module you'll want to use.

For example, a USB webcam will work as a makeshift security camera when connected to a Raspberry Pi, but you can get the official camera board to get more out of the security setup, as well as avoid any incomparability issues than might pop up.

There are two official options for this: the Raspberry Pi Camera v2 and the Raspberry Pi NoIR Camera v2, the latter being specifically designed for low-light applications. They both feature an 8 megapixel Sony IMX219 image sensor, which supports 1080p video at 30fps, 720p at 60 and 640x480p at 90fps. They connect direct to the Pi via a dedicated ribbon socket, and are supported natively in Raspbian. In short, one of these is your best choice, depending on whether you're planning mostly daytime video, or a significant amount of night/twilight work.

If you're planning a security camera system with dedicated hardware, then the cheaper Pi Zero W paired with one of the many night-vision kit cameras is worth considering, as this option keeps hardware costs, size and unwanted additional components to a minimum. Note, though, that the Pi Camera v2 needs an additional adaptor to work with the Pi Zero range.

Aside from your choice of Pi and camera combo, you'll need the usual USB power supply, an 8GB minimum SD/Micro SD card with Raspbian installed and either a monitor/keyboard/mouse or remote access enabled. Although you'll be able to get this project up and running without a case, you'll need to buy or build a suitable item depending on where you plan to monitor - weatherproof options are usually a good idea unless they''ll be living exclusively indoors.

Also bear in mind that motion-based camera systems can generate large volumes of video, which will require large amounts of either local or network storage if you want to view it later. This project can accommodate either, depending on your needs.

Once you've connected everything up - and carefully clipped the camera board in place - you're ready for the software bit. There are two simple routes to go down here - either install Motion and tweak it to suit, or go for an all-in-one option, like MotionEye, a Linux distribution that turns a single-board computer into a video surveillance system. The OS is based on BuildRoot and uses Motion as a backend and MotionEye for the frontend.

We'll go with MotionEye here, as it rounds off some of the corners without adding much in terms of complexity.

Downloading and writing MotionEye image to disk

First, download the latest version of MotionEye for your device, extract the image file from the archive and write it to your SD card. You can use Etcher.io on Windows, or in Linux there is a writeimage.sh script that will do everything for you.

Just run the script as follows (replacing the arguments with appropriate values):./writeimage.sh -d /dev/mmcblk0 -i "/path/to/motioneyeos.img"

Note that you'll need to specify the device path to the disk and not to some partition (for example /dev/mmcblk0 instead of /dev/mmcblk0p1).

You can preconfigure a wireless network connection - or a static IP if you'd rather not use DCHP - with the following command. Just use this command for Wi-Fi:./writeimage.sh -d /dev/mmcblk0 -i "/path/to/motioneyeos.img" -n 'yournet:yourkey'

...and this command for a static IP:./writeimage.sh -d /dev/mmcblk0 -i "/path/to/motioneyeos.img" -s "192.168.1.101/24:192.168.1.1:8.8.8.8"

Boot and setup

This complete, you're ready to boot the image. This will take a few minutes as the system auto-configures. Your motionEyeOS needs an IP address before you can communicate with it so you'll have to use the ethernet connection with DHCP enabled, unless you have preconfigured a static IP address.

As soon as your motionEyeOS setup is complete, it will listen on port 80 and present you with a web user interface - simply enter the IP address of your board in the address bar of your browser. Use your router to display devices on your home network, or use a network scanner to hunt for a device called "meye-".

Once found, you'll be able to click on the user icon on the upper-left side of the page to switch user to administrator. Use admin with no password when asked for credentials - the user setting is for remote monitoring, the admin for changing settings.

MotionEyeOS has a broad range of settings to play with, but the first thing you'll want to do is set up passwords for both admin and user, set the timezone and enable wireless. After that, choose the desired resolution, frame rate, and other details of your video feed, and configure file storage if you want your pictures and movies saved on a network or USB drive.

You'll be able to monitor your camera remotely (including on a smartphone) by visiting the relevant IP, inputting your 'user' login, and then using the web interface. The interface also allows you to browse, preview and download videos and images from each connected camera by using the media browser window which opens by clicking on the pictures or movies buttons.

This project gives you the beginning of a great security camera system which can scale up to monitor almost any situation, and is far more flexible than most comparable-price commercial systems. In addition, the Pi and Camera board can be the basis for a wide range of other projects too, including wildlife cameras or timelapse photography.

Thanks to Calin Crisan for his MotionEyeOS

EnGenius adds a new dimension to video surveillance as its EL-EWS1025CAM teams up a 2-megapixel IP camera with an integral dual-band 11n/ac wireless access point (AP). There's more, too: it can function as a standalone unit or integrate with EnGenius' Neutron WLAN management switches and join a wireless mesh network.

This ceiling-mounted camera has impressive credentials - along with a wide 120-degree diagonal FOV, the lens is encircled by 24 IR emitters for night-time operations. It has an integral mic, the Gigabit port is PoE-enabled and EnGenius also provides an external power adapter.

The kit includes a circular plastic mounting bracket and a set of clips for hanging it from the T-rails of a suspended ceiling. The lens position can be easily adjusted using its friction joints and behind the rubber cover on the side are a MicroSD card slot and reset button.

The camera is easy to deploy and on first contact, its tidy web interface sensibly advised us to change the default admin password. The Live View offers two streams using H.264 or MJPEG at up to 30fps. The first supports 1920 x 1080 while the second only goes up to 640 x 360 for mobile viewers.

The Live View image quality is excellent at the top resolution, with a sharp focus, good colour balance and smoothly conveyed motion via an H.264 feed. Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome had no problems showing the Live View, although we noted that the snapshot, full screen view, recording and audio mute buttons to the side only worked with IE11.

The camera uses a single web console for video and wireless management and provides eight SSIDs each for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios. All the expected security options are present and correct, plus you can assign one isolated guest network to each radio with its own DHCP server.

We used the scheduler to control availability of individual SSIDs, allowing us to turn them off outside normal working hours and on weekends. Monitoring options include lists of associated wireless clients and real-time graphs showing traffic for each radio plus system CPU load.

The EnGenius Video Management Software (VMS) provides a video wall for up to 16 IP camera feeds. The camera slotted in neatly with VMS allowing us to place it on an e-map, create recording schedules and motion detection events, store its feed on network storage and browse the recording vault.

To test the camera's efficacy with the Neutron solution we used an EnGenius EWS5912FP PoE WLAN management switch and threw in a couple of EWS360AP wireless APs for good measure. The switch has a dual-role web console providing access to the switch itself and the WLAN controller portion.

Adding the APs and camera was simple, and after they had been auto-detected by the switch, we assigned them to an AP Group containing all our wireless and security settings. We could enabled both radios, enforce security for all 16 SSIDs, broadcast them, enable or disable client isolation, create wireless VLANs and enforce upload and download traffic shaping limits.

With meshing in action, new APs don't need to be wired to the network as they'll link up wirelessly with the nearest AP and grab their settings from the switch. We tested roaming by unplugging an AP and watched connected clients transparently move over to the next available one.

The camera's video functions can still be accessed directly from its local web console so there's no change here. To simplify management further, we moved over to the VMS app loaded on a Windows 10 desktop and monitored and recorded its feed from here.

Priced right for SMBs, the EnGenius EL-EWS1025CAM is a great idea for adding surveillance and wireless access at the same location. As a standalone device it has a lot to offer but support for the EnGenius Neutron WLAN management solution probably makes it the most versatile IP camera we've seen.

This review originally appeared in PC Pro issue 276.

Verdict

Priced right for SMBs, the EnGenius EL-EWS1025CAM is a great idea for adding surveillance and wireless access at the same location. As a standalone device it has a lot to offer but support for the EnGenius Neutron WLAN management solution probably makes it the most versatile IP camera we've seen.

1/2.9in. Sony RGB CMOS

2.8mm/F2.0 lens

1080p max res

30fps

MJPEG/H.264

Gigabit

PoE

2.4/5GHz 11/n/ac wireless AP

24 x IR LEDs

Internal mic

MicroSD/SDXC card slot

External PSU

EnGenius Video Management software

134 x 134 x 97mm (WDH)

1yr standard warranty. Options: EWS5912FP 8-port Neutron switch, £273 ex VAT

Hikvision's Darkfighter is an IP camera for all seasons. This big 2MP bullet camera has an IP67 rating, indicating that it's dust-tight and able to survive the heaviest rainstorm. As the name implies, it's also designed to work even in very low light conditions.

This is no idle claim. We found the Darkfighter served up colour surveillance footage at light levels that would normally see a camera like this switch to black-and-white infrared mode. From our outdoor test location it delivered full colour images well after dusk, with only street lights to work with.

This wouldn't be useful if the images themselves were blurry and indistinct, but we found the live view was very sharply focused, with excellent colour balance and contrast. This quality was maintained in both our indoor and outdoor location tests, and even though the camera only has two IR LEDs, we found the claimed surveillance range of 20 metres was perfectly achievable once the evening became properly dark.

The camera is exceedingly well built -- it weighs a hefty 2kg -- and it offers a far more generous range of connection options than your average IP camera. No fewer than seven cables are routed out the back, offering analogue BNC, female 10/100 Ethernet, alarm input and output, RS-485 serial, audio in, audio out and a connector for the optional power supply.

There's also a waterproof slot cover underneath the camera, where you can insert a microSD card for local storage. It all comes with an internal bracket for wall or ceiling mounts, and for external mounting there's a junction box too to keep your cables dry.

Hikvision's tidy web interface provides easy access to a wealth of features. You can simply click buttons on the live view screen to change the aspect ratio, take snapshots, record to local or network storage and activate a mic and speaker connected to the camera's audio cables.

The camera can serve up three simultaneous live streams, but the primary one only supports H.264: we were able to access it with IE 11 and Firefox, but Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome wouldn't work. The second stream supports MJPEG, meaning it works in all browsers, but it's aimed at mobile users and only has a maximum resolution of 704 x 576 pixels.

Motion-detection support is excellent: you can define up to eight different areas to monitor, each with its own sensitivity settings. An arming schedule allowed us to decide when each zone was active on each day, and you can link events to actions such as recording to local or network storage, sending an email and triggering an alarm output to a device attached the camera's I/O block.

You can also configure different types of detection. Line-crossing detection triggers an alarm if an object or person moves through a line drawn on the live view: you can draw up to four lines and also set detection for either direction on one-way only.

Intrusion detection triggers an alarm if an object enters a predefined area or remains in it for up to 10 seconds, while video-tampering detection triggers an alert if an area in the live view is covered over.

There's also a target cropping option, which lets you draw a box around an area of interest and assign it to the third stream. If you see something occurring in the primary stream, you can switch to the third stream to focus on this region.

The kit includes Hikvision's iVMS-4200 software, which is a complete video management platform for multiple cameras. It worked fine with Windows 10, where it discovered our camera and offered recording and playback tools, e-mapping, event management and a video wall for up to 16 cameras.

Hikvision's Darkfighter bullet impressed us with its wide range of features, versatile software and excellent video performance, especially in low light. The IP67 rating makes it perfect for all-weather surveillance too, so even though it's a comparatively expensive camera, it's a great choice for businesses seeking surveillance without compromises.

This review originally appeared in PC Pro issue 270

Verdict

Hikvision's Darkfighter bullet impressed us with its wide range of features, versatile software and excellent video performance, especially in low light. The IP67 rating makes it perfect for all-weather surveillance too, so even though it's a comparatively expensive camera, it's a great choice for businesses seeking surveillance without compromises.

1/1.8in. 2MP RGB CMOS

2.8-12mm, f/1.4 lens

1080p max res

25fps

IP67 certified

MJPEG/H.264

10/100 Ethernet

PoE

BNC

I/O block

RS-485

audio in/out

micro-SD slot

2 x IR LEDs

Hikvision iVMS-4200 video management software

100 x 312 x 104mm (WDH)

2kg

wall mount bracket

2yr RTB warranty

Measuring just 65mm in diameter and 96mm tall, the EnGenius EDS6255 is small enough to provide discreet surveillance. With night vision and wireless network support, it's well equipped, and it's quite a bit cheaper than the Axis M1065-LW.

The kit includes a circular plastic mounting bracket and a set of clips for hanging it from the T-rails of a suspended ceiling. The orientation of the lens can be easily adjusted via a small screw in the side of the camera body, with tool that's handily secreted in a slot below. On the other side is a rubber cover for the micro-SD card slot and reset button.

We had no problems powering the camera via the lab's HPE ProCurve 2626-PWR PoE switch - although EnGenius also includes an external power adapter, for those wanting to use a wireless connection. Setting this up is pain-free: the web interface listed all SSIDs in the camera's vicinity, allowed us to add multiple SSIDs as AP profiles for quick selection and offered a quick WPS setup option.

Once it's up and running, the camera supports two live video streams, using either H.264 or MJPEG at up to 30fps. The first supports resolutions up to 1,920 x 1,080 while the second is aimed at mobile viewers and only goes up to 640 x 360. As usual, however, this is also the only stream you can access via either Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. Switching to IE 11 got everything working perfectly, and we found image quality at the top resolution to be very good. Focus is sharp, colour quality realistic and motion is conveyed over H.264 with only the slightest of delays.

It's also easy to access your video streams over the internet, thanks to Engenius' free DDNS service. After enabling this on the camera, we were able to use the EnViewer iOS app to access its live view from anywhere in the world, as well as taking snapshots to our iPad's photo library, recording and playing back video and listening to its mic. EnGenius even provides a QR code label for the camera, for effortless connection.

The bundled Video Management Software (VMS) adds more value, providing a well-designed console and a video wall for up to 16 cameras. It worked fine with Windows 10 and we used it to view live feeds, schedule recordings, set up motion detection events, browse the video archive and apply an e-map for quickly accessing different cameras.

For motion detection, you can create up the three windows, each with their own sensitivity rating, and schedule when they're active - but only one action can be applied to all of them. When any one is triggered, you can record to either local or network storage, and fire off notifications to email, mobile devices running the EnViewer app and the VMS console. The camera also supports audio and camera tampering detection, which can be linked to various alerts and recording destinations.

The EDS6255's weak suit is night vision. According to the datasheet, the EDS6255 has 12 IR LEDs - although we could only see one on each side of the lens. Whatever the reality, its night-time range is limited: after dark, we were completely unable to make out details beyond a range of four metres. An annoying quirk of the software also means that a schedule can't run past midnight, so if you want to run motion detection overnight you have to create two separate schedules.

Night-vision quibbles aside, the EDS6255 is a versatile IP camera offered at a very reasonable price. It packs a lot of useful features into its compact shell; as long as you don't need to peer too deeply into the murk, it delivers good video quality and comes with decent video management software.

This review was originally published in PC Pro issue 270

Verdict

The EDS6255 is a versatile IP camera offered at a very reasonable price. It packs a lot of useful features into its compact shell; as long as you don't need too much night vision, it delivers good video quality and comes with decent video management software.

1/2.7in. RGB CMOS;

2.8mm, f/1.8 lens;

1080p max res;

30fps;

MJPEG/H.264;

10/100 Ethernet;

PoE;

802.11n wireless;

2 x IR LEDs;

Internal mic;

Micro-SD card slot;

External PSU;

EnGenius Video Management software;

65 x 65 x 96mm (WDH);

237g;

2yr RTB warranty

The Axis M1065-LW is one of the smallest IP cameras on the market, making it an attractive option for offices seeking a discreet indoor surveillance solution. What's more, despite its miniscule dimensions, it comes with a list of features to match IP cameras twice its size.

That includes a maximum resolution of 1080p at 25fps, with support for both wired and wireless network connections. With an integrated infrared illuminator and a PIR motion sensor, it can detect movement and record video in the dark as well as the daytime.

There's also an internal microphone and speaker for two-way audio, and a micro-SD card slot, so you can store video locally as well as to network storage. It's a shame that there's no PoE support, but the included PSU has a decent 2.9m cable, so your positioning options aren't too limited.

We found the camera took less than a minute to set up over a wired connection, and its native web interface is very easy to use. From here, setting up a wireless connection is simplicity itself: you can choose your SSID from a list, or simply use the WPS button on the side of the camera.

The M1065-LW impressed us with its video quality. Its live view is pin-sharp, with excellent contrast and colour balance. You can choose from 10 resolutions and configure multiple stream profiles, so you can set up different image sizes, frame rates and compression levels to suit different destinations.

For night-time operation the IR illuminator has a range of 10 metres and switches on automatically when light levels drop. We found the PIR sensor also worked well, with movement within 6 metres triggering our alert actions.

The one concession you'll probably have to make is accessing the camera via Internet Explorer. Neither Microsoft Edge nor Chrome supports the Axis Media Control plug-in required for H.264 streaming - so if you want to watch your feed in one of these browsers you'll have to live with MJPEG. And while Firefox will stream H.264 through the QuickTime plug-in, there's an annoying three-second video delay. Internet Explorer has no such limitations: we were happily able to stream in either video format, with latency of less than one second.

When we enabled audio, the web interface also installed an AAC decoder plug-in. Audio transmission is half-duplex: to speak to someone, you click and hold the Talk button at the bottom of the live view page,and let go when you want to listen to them. Overall sound quality isn't great, but it was good enough for us to hold a conversation with someone next to the camera.

The camera can be set to respond to a wide range of events, including motion (detected by either the camera or the PIR sensor), audio noise or camera tampering. The camera comes preloaded with Axis' clever Motion Detection 3 app, which offers variable sensitivity, so you can ignore small movements such as birds landing on the windowsill.

You can set up rules to link triggers to actions, such as recording to the micro-SD card or to a network share, sending images to HTTP and FTP servers or emailing them and playing a warning sound clip stored on the camera. You can also set up schedules to apply different rules at different times of the day.

It's a system with scope to grow, too: Axis' free Camera Companion software supports multiple sites, each with up to 16 cameras and provides centralised recording and playback facilities. The interface provides live views of assigned cameras, along with facilities for browsing recordings and a slick investigation mode for frame-by-frame viewing.

We found it automatically discovered our Synology NAS appliance, listed available shares for selection and set up motion detection for us. We also had no problems linking the Axis iOS app to our MyAxis cloud account and viewing camera feeds remotely from our iPad.

For a small office or shop, the M1065-LW is comparatively expensive, but it delivers premium protection for your business. It's small enough to be unobtrusive, and offers top-notch image quality and a comprehensive set of surveillance features.

This review originally appeared in PC Pro 270

Verdict

For a small office or shop, the M1065-LW is comparatively expensive, but it delivers premium protection for your business. It's small enough to be unobtrusive, and offers top-notch image quality and a comprehensive set of surveillance features.

1/3in. RGB CMOS; 2.8mm, f/2.0 lens

1080p max res

25fps

MJPEG/H.264

10/100 Ethernet

802.11n wireless

PIR sensor

IR illuminator

Internal mic/speaker

Micro-SD card slot

External PSU

Axis Camera Companion and Camera Station (1 licence) software

61 x 37 x 106mm (WDH)

128g

Wall mount bracket and table-top stand

3yr RTB warranty

A member of D-Link's Vigilance professional surveillance family, the DCS-4602EV is designed to go where other IP cameras fear to tread. Its IP66 rating makes it fully weather-proof against dust-storms and heavy jets of water, and its solid metal casing and polycarbonate dome have an IK10 external mechanical impact rating - the highest possible - meaning it can stand up to a physical battering too.

The DCS-4602EV is based on a 2MP CMOS with a top resolution of 1080p. It also features 15 infrared LED illuminators circling its lens, which D-Link claims will deliver night-vision at a range of up to 20 metres - something our tests bore out.

The camera supports wired connections only, and the expectation is that you'll be driving it via PoE - the 12V power supply is an optional extra. A short waterproof Ethernet cable protrudes from the camera's base, so that the RJ-45 connection doesn't become a chink in the DCS-4602EV's armour.

The tidy web interface makes light work of configuration, but as usual Microsoft Edge and Chrome don't support H.264 streams. We had no such problem with IE 11, in either format, and were also able to use Firefox via the QuickTime plugin for H.264 - although as with other cameras, this introduces an annoying three second latency for motion. D-Link tells us it's looking into these issues but is currently advising Windows 10 users to stick with IE 11.

Live view quality is reasonable, but the camera's focus is on the soft side, making the image appear very slightly blurry. Still, it's good enough for general surveillance of areas such as lobbies and corridors. The camera handles artificial lighting well, and when positioned outdoors it reacted quickly to changing light levels. We suggest you keep it out of direct sunlight, however: faced with our brightest scene, the camera turned down the exposure so far that the areas in shadow were too dark to be usable.

The web interface is standard across D-Link's range, so you'll find a PTZ control pad on the left side, even though the pan and tilt buttons do nothing on this camera. The zoom buttons do work for the DCS-4602EV, but since this is digital zoom it's only good for blowing up the image: you won't capture any more detail, and quality breaks down badly at the maximum 10X setting.

We defined two streams each with their own resolution, codec and frame rate for PC and mobile viewing, and saw quick links in the live view page, along with buttons for full-screen, taking snapshots and recording on demand.

Setting up motion detection is simple too: you can draw zones to mark where you want it be active, and set a global sensitivity level. A handy indicator in the live view shows when motion detection has been triggered, and this can be linked to a range of events. Up to five email, FTP and NAS servers are supported and we could decide whether to send snapshots, video clips or just system logs to them. You can also set events to be automatically triggered to a schedule, or to a camera reboot.

In addition to the camera's own web interface, you get D-Link's D-ViewCam software for accessing up to 32 cameras and managing recordings to multiple storage locations. The console looks dated but it works fine on Windows 10 and offers plenty of tools including a handy e-map facility. There's also an iOS app: we had no problems accessing the video server host on the LAN, but if you want to access it from outside your company network you'll need to manually set up port forwarding to allow it to get through your firewall.

The DCS-4602EV is a tough all-weather camera that's built to last and offers plenty of features. Image quality isn't the best, but if you're looking for an vandal-proof outdoor IP camera, the low price makes it an attractive choice.

This review originally appeared in PC Pro issue 270

Verdict

The DCS-4602EV is a tough all-weather camera that's built to last and offers plenty of features. Image quality isn't the best, but if you're looking for an vandal-proof outdoor IP camera, the low price makes it an attractive choice.

1/3in. 2MP RGB CMOS

2.8mm, f/1.8 lens

1080p max res

30/25fps (60/50Hz)

IP66/IK10 certified

MJPEG/H.264

10/100 Ethernet

PoE

15 x IR LEDs

10X digital zoom

D-Link D-ViewCam software

110 x 110 x 72mm (WDH)

2yr RTB warranty

Webcam and CCTV owners are being urged to secure access to surveillance devices after it emerged a Russian website is making the footage available for anyone to view online.

The website, called Insecam, streams live video from thousands of webcams without the owners' permission. The owners also have no idea their premises are being spied on.

In the UK, around 584 webcams are available to view, including feeds from offices, factories and even a pub in Egham. More ominously, children and babies can be seen sleeping in their beds.

According to Simon Rice, group manager for technology at the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said the website accesses the footage by using the default login credentials, which are freely available online for thousands of cameras.

"With 350,000 of these cameras sold in the UK alone last year, this is a threat that all of us need to be aware of and be taking action to protect against," he said.

The ability to access footage remotely is both an internet camera's biggest selling point and, if not setup correctly, potentially its biggest security weakness, he added.

"Remember, if you can access your video footage over the internet, then what is stopping someone else from doing the same?

"You may think that having to type in an obscure web address to access the footage provides some level of protection. However, this will not protect you from the remote software that hackers often use to scan the internet for vulnerable devices.

"In some cases, insecure cameras can be identified using nothing more than an internet search engine," said Rice.

"As a last resort, you can always cover the lens if you don't want to use the camera all of the time."

David Emm, principal security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, said, to protect webcams from being hijacked, users can start securing their routers by changing the default password and of any other device, such as baby monitors and webcams.

"Hacking into a device's camera offers those with malicious intent access to our images, our most intimate moments, our identities and the people we want most to protect, such as our children," he said.

US defence firm Raytheon has developed software that can track people via their updates to social networks and can even predict their future movements.

Dubbed RIOT or Rapid Information Overlay Technology, the software is capable of analysing "trillions of entities" mined from social networks and other parts of the internet.

RIOT came to light via investigations carried out by the Guardian newspaper. It unearthed a video from the firm detailing how the software trawls through vast quantities of data collected from Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare to build up a profileof a user.

The software can also pull metadata from pictures taken to pinpoint a user's location when the picture was taken. From this and other location data taken from applications such as Foursquare and Gowalla, the software can predict future movements of users.

Raytheon has not yet sold RIOT to any clients but has been shared with the US government as part of a joint research project to develop a Big Data system capable of surveilling large parts of the population.

Even when you've set all your settings to "Friends" only, it turns out you can still appear in strangers' search results

According to the Guardian report, Raytheon did not want the video to be revealed as the product was a "proof of concept" that had not been sold to clients. A spokesman for Raytheon told the Guardian that its Big Data analytics system would turn "turn massive amounts of data into useable information to help meet our nation's rapidly changing security needs."

The system has also been featured in a recently published patent filed by the firm designed to gather information on people from a variety of sources, including social networks, blogs and other applications.

Privacy organisations have warned that users will have to re-evaluate privacy settings on social networks to avoid themselves from being targetted in online searches by others.

"By locking down your privacy settings, you can help prevent your information from appearing in searches run by strangers and protect your friends from showing up in results," said Adi Kamdar of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"But even when you've set all your settings to "Friends" only, it turns out you can still appear in strangers' search results," he said.

Kamdar added that users should be allowed to opt out of being found in searches.

IT Pro contacted Raytheon for further comment on RIOT but the firm has not responded to our request for comment at the time of publication.

Emails released by WikiLeaks appear to show the UK Government and London's Metropolitan Police Service (Met) are involved in controversial surveillance network, TrapWire.

One email in a set stolen from global intelligence firm Stratfor by hactivists Anonymous and leaked via WikiLeaks states:

"We have an agreement in principle with Abraxas (TrapWire) to provide streaming sitreps' to their clients via their desktop/homepage by the end of July. Their clients include Scotland Yard, #10 Downing, the White House, and many MNC's (multinational corporations)."

TrapWire is a surveillance service that collates data from CCTV cameras, number plate readers and open source databases. It is understood to use facial recognition technology and reportedly also scours social networks with the aim of catching terrorists in the planning and reconnaissance phases of an attack.

The service is proving controversial, as privacy activists are concerned TrapWire is too intrusive and could be used to profile and store data on innocent people. Additionally, according to a white paper produced by TrapWire's parent company Abraxas, the bigger the service gets, the more powerful it becomes and emails released by WikiLeaks indicate an intention to unify the service across geopolitical jurisdictions.

Further controversy surrounds the relationship between Abraxas, which provides what it describes as "risk mitigation technology for the national security community", and Stratfor, which has been described variously as a shadow' and private' CIA.

A statement from Anonymous said: "The more we learn about TrapWire and similar systems, it becomes absolutely clear that we must at all costs shut this system down and render it useless.

"A giant AI electronic brain able to monitor us through a combination of access to all the CCTV cameras as well as all the online social media feeds is monstrous and Orwellian in it's (sic) implications and possibilities. [We] will now put forth a call to arms, and initiate the doom of this evil and misbegotten program."

A UK Government spokesperson refused to confirm or deny its use of the TrapWire system. A spokesperson for the Met, on the other hand, told IT Pro "We have no knowledge of any contract or discussion re the product."

Privacy International wants the Government to introduce tighter export controls to help regulate the sale of surveillance technology overseas.

The privacy campaign group has threatened to commence legal proceedings against the Government unless it immediately imposes export controls on surveillance equipment.

In a statement to IT Pro, Privacy International confirmed the Government has until Monday 6 August to provide a "substantive response" to the letter or face possible legal proceedings.

The group has enlisted the help of legal firm Bhatt Murphy, who has written to the business secretary Vince Cable on Privacy International's behalf.

The letter claims that export controls have "not kept pace with the developments in this technology or the related growth of the industry," which is estimated to be worth around $3 billion.

"As a consequence, surveillance equipment and technology is now being exported from the UK by British companies to repressive regimes around the world without any controls," the letter claimed.

"Privacy International believes this equipment is being used by repressive foreign governments for a wide range of abuses."

The letter goes on to give examples of countries where, it is claimed, the surveillance technology produced by one UK firm has been used.

"We would also be grateful for your confirmation...that you [the Government] will be immediately imposing export controls in relation to surveillance equipment," the letter states.

"In the event that you are not prepared to confirm this, we would be grateful if you could provide reasons as to why."

RSA chairman Art Coviello opened his company's premier conference today by saying security providers have been "going through hell in the last 12 months."

Coviello was in boisterous mood during the RSA 2012 keynote as he took to the stage a year after the successful hack of his own business, saying the industry was facing some "harsh realities."

"Never have so many security firms been attacked directly," Coviello said.

"An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us, but together we can all learn from these experiences and emerge from this hell, smarter and stronger than we were before.

An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.

"As Winston Churchill once said, if you're going through hell keep going... We must fight back the only way we know how, through creativity and innovation."

Coviello issued a rallying call for the industry to produce different kinds of technologies, insisting vendors needed to move away from the old, perimeter-focused mentality.

The industry should focus on creating technologies that leverage big data to gather information on threats to then counter them, he said.

The end point protections of old are not good enough, nor are they flexible enough, the RSA chairman added.

"Today's systems are a patchwork of controls... serving up far too much data and not enough intelligence," he said.

Earlier today, RSA moved to align itself with a security start up that is pushing such innovation and moving away from the classic signature-based models.

The deal with Zscaler will see the two selling a product that combines the agent-less, cloud-based model of the start up with RSA's well-known authentication services.

A flaw in Trendnet firmware has led to the breach of thousands of IP CCTV camera feeds, exposing people's private lives.

Users' video streams, including those of children's bedrooms, have reportedly been compromised and links pointing to them placed online.

Trendnet said it is rolling out a fix to affected customers.

"Trendnet has recently gained awareness of an IP camera vulnerability common to many Trendnet SecurView cameras," the company said in an official statement.

"It is Trendnet's understanding that video from select Trendnet IP cameras may be accessed online in real time. Upon awareness of the issue, Trendnet initiated immediate actions to correct and publish updated firmware which resolves the vulnerability."

Trendnet SecurView Cameras bought between April 2010 to now may have a firmware vulnerability.

Trendnet is aware that this IP Camera security threat may affect your confidence in Trendnet solutions.

Yesterday, the company said it was working to publish all outstanding firmware within the next 48 hours.

"Trendnet is aware that this IP Camera security threat may affect your confidence in Trendnet solutions. Trendnet extends its deepest apologies to consumers which may be impacted by this issue," the company added.

The company advised concerned customers to email ipcam@trendnet.com if they had any urgent enquiries.

A spokesperson told the BBC the company had not actually issues a formal media release even though it first became aware of the issue on 12 January.

A total of 26 models are affected by the flaw and the company is "scrambling to discover how the code was introduced," the spokesperson added.

CASE STUDY Football hooligans have been known to cause a spot of bother in their time.

For the Premier League teams they purportedly support, these kinds of sports fans' can cause more than reputational damage, they can cause financial issues as well.

Any team whose fans spark violence or trash club property can find themselves on the end of significant fines now.

Keeping supporters under control is therefore of the utmost importance for any Premier League team. Hence why Fulham FC, known as one of the more genial English clubs, has invested heavily in its new IP CCTV system.

All watched over by iPads

When we caught up with Fulham's head of IT Nicolas Pendlebury last year, the club had just hooked up a new network with Juniper. He was also talking of implementing the IP CCTV system back then. Now we've seen it in all its (somewhat Orwellian) glory.

The biggest wow-factor of this new implementation initiated by IT, not the security team at Fulham is the use of iPads. Using an iPad app from software development firm Genetech, police can control a network of 63 HD cameras, all with their own IP address, located at Fulham's Craven Cottage stadium and Motspur Park training ground. Administrators can change camera angles or zoom in to focus on particular bits of action they want to see from their shiny Apple devices.

iPads aren't the only CCTV enabled mobile devices either. iPhones can access the app, whilst an Android version is on its way.

The resolution is far superior to previous systems. With the non-IP, analogue systems of old, zooming in to a suspect's face would only reveal something resembling a demolished cottage pie, where there was meant to be a human head.

Whereas suspects could simply deny their involvement before due to the ropey footage, all their misdemeanors are now caught in high-definition, with each box connected to the cameras featuring a 550 graphics card. With that kind of visual quality, there's no getting away with it.

"We now need to get a clear passport sized photo of suspects. We can now print that off and it's impossible to argue with," Pendlebury said. "In the past we just couldn't do that."

It's all delivered via a private cloud environment too, meaning police can review footage anytime they want and from any internet-enabled location. It all makes for a vastly superior CCTV operation.

Comparisons to Minority Report are used too frequently in the tech world. Yet Fulham FC's control room is at least partially reminiscent of the film, with an omniscient team of police watching over citizens via HD screens.

IT made the set-up as simple as possible for the security team and Metropolitan Police manning the systems. With a classic joystick device, the policemen and women can perform the same operations as on the iPad, only on bigger, clearer monitors.

To further entrench the reality of the Minority Report analogy, and make it simpler for police to operate the cameras, Pendlebury revealed he will be installing touch screens for police to monitor fans. They can now fulfill their dreams/nightmares of being just like Tom Cruise.

Another nifty feature involves privacy. Where certain features need to be blocked out, such as names or anything which might land the club in legal trouble, the cameras can black sections of footage out. It even works when zooming in or changing camera angle.

Security now and in the future

There's already been success using the new system. In a recent game involving Liverpool, in which Fulham were positively hammered, 30 fans were arrested after smartly deciding to rip up a section of seats in the away end. The IP CCTV enabled the identification of those involved, proving Pendlebury's efforts were worth the investment in both time and money.

In the future, Fulham is looking at acquiring even more sophisticated, granular technology to help keep the peace. Facial recognition could soon be in use between football grounds, so individuals banned from attending games can be spotted by machines rather than the security guys having to keep their eyes peeled.

Another piece of software Pendlebury is interested in can notify security teams when an individual enters a room with a bag, only to leave without it. When bomb scares are a genuine issue, tech like this could prove the difference between life and death.

Fulham's cameras can also be fitted with microphones, so security teams could hypothetically give people a stern telling off without moving from their seats in the control room. How such a communist mechanism might go down with pumped-up football fans is another question altogether.

Storing footy footage

Another major problem with the old analogue system was storage. Before, Fulham used six VHS recorders and 27 cameras to catch footage. Outside of the time-consuming problems of forwarding and rewinding to locate footage when an incident occurred, this presented the club with a costly storage problem.

With the IP CCTV system in place, Fulham has set up a private cloud to run it. EMC was brought in to deploy two cloud environments featuring VMware virtualisation and EMC unified storage. The club now runs just six servers, down from 36 operating between its stadium and training ground. This has brought financial rewards with it.

"Over three years we would have saved over 150-200,000 just from hardware maintenance costs," Pendlebury said. "That's not including the time savings of staff having to recover video. Those savings are just from physical maintenance and upkeep of systems."

This all forms part of the club's move to a more virtual, cloudy infrastructure. But will Fulham ever move to the public cloud?

"Fulham wants to develop its cloud internally at first. We have one or two products in the public cloud, but I have a slight concern about security there," Pendlebury told IT Pro.

"Because we have this private cloud and virtual environment, to move that to the bigger cloud will just be a migration, not a whole new learning curve. It'll be a baby step rather than learning to walk. Or we can merge them, going 50 per cent public and 50 per cent private."

An end user-focused approach

Unlike most IT projects, this initiative actually sought the opinion of the end user prior to implementation. Rather than act like the lone wolf it tends to do, IT went out and gathered information from the people using the systems. Novel, hey?

"I did workshops on a number of areas," Pendlebury explained. "Security use the system on a matchday, safety use it, the police and the medical teams use it I got all their feedback about what they wanted from the system. I then put together a list of priories."

With those recommendations from the floor, Pendlebury and his IT team produced a system security personnel learned to use in just four hours.

"For me it was really interesting to understand what the users wanted. Without getting stuck in the technical details, it was looking at how best to deliver for the needs of the security officers that use the system on a daily basis," he added.

When IT and workers on the floor come together, genuinely useful systems can be introduced. Employees will enjoy using them and IT can prove its value to a business by deploying them.

In this case, it'll help keep the thugs who ruin the actual joy of football under control.

A website which lets individuals watch over companies' CCTV footage via the web has been forced to make privacy changes.

The Internet Eyes service sparked privacy concerns when it was first announced in 2009, leading the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to delay the launch of the website while the watchdog carried out an investigation.

Privacy groups were upset when the ICO decided to let the website go live in October 2010.

It appears the ICO has kept a close eye on Internet Eyes, however, and today ordered changes after video footage from the service was seen on YouTube.

"CCTV footage should not end up on YouTube when it shows someone simply out doing their shopping. A person's CCTV image is their personal data," said deputy commissioner David Smith.

"The law says that it should only be disclosed where necessary, such as for the purposes of crime detection, and not merely for entertainment."

The ICO said it had only received one complaint about Internet Eyes, which offers rewards of up to 1,000 for members who spot shoplifters when viewing the footage.

An ICO investigation discovered Internet Eyes did not ensure the transfer of CCTV images it was streaming to viewers was encrypted.

As Internet Eyes did not track its viewers' activities, it was not able to identify which viewer posted the clip on YouTube, the ICO said.

Internet Eyes has now agreed to encrypt the transfer of CCTV images, as well as establish an audit trail for viewer activity and ensure "proper checks" are carried out on registered viewers.

Furthermore, from 31 July, the service has been told to ensure no viewer can access footage from cameras located in their postcode, or in any postcode district within a 30 mile radius of their registered location.

"We will continue to keep a close watch on them [Internet Eyes] and do not rule out taking more formal enforcement action if further complaints are received," Smith added.

Not good enough?

Privacy groups may not be won over by the ICO's actions, however.

Daniel Hamilton, director of the Big Brother Watch, was not convinced the ICO had gone far enough.

"Today's ruling does little to address fundamental concerns many have about this system and its impact upon personal privacy," Hamilton told IT Pro.

"It's fundamentally wrong to hand untrained and unaccountable voyeurs the power to monitor CCTV images. This should be left to trained professionals."

The Metropolitan Police Service has launched a campaign to make people more aware of just how attractive their new mobile phones and gadgets are to would-be criminals.

Launched this week, the anti-robbery awareness initiative aims to ensure Londoners take great care when out and about with high-value items such as

smartphones, MP3 players and jewellery.

"The MPS take street robbery very seriously - being robbed is a traumatic experience. However, the public can minimise the chance of it happening by taking some basic measures. When you are out, where possible try and keep any valuables hidden. Smart phones and media players are becoming must-have items for many people - that includes criminals too. They simply see these items as cash," said MPS Commander Simon Pountain.

"Many robberies happen when people check their phones just after leaving a transport hub, or when they are going about their business and may be distracted. Adults who have consumed alcohol and have less awareness of their surroundings are also more vulnerable. We're also aware that young people are targeted, usually by other young people."

Last year, more than 30,000 street robberies were recorded - an increase of 8.3 per cent on 2009's figures. The number of mobiles stolen has also shot up by 22 per cent.

Pountain added: "We are not asking the public not to use their phones or media players in public - we are just advising them to be vigilant about where and when they use them."

The Met's campaign will run until 13 February and feature radio, online and traditional advertising.

As part of the efforts, the Met has released CCTV footage of mobile phone theft in action.

It shows a mobile being taken from 20-year-old student Zarqa' on 11 October last year.

A 25-year-old man, Aaron Leon Conway, from Plumstead in London, was arrested and pleaded guilty to this and two other counts of robbery. Conway was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison.

The Met Police has stressed that the second man in the CCTV clip was not involved in the robbery.

Manufacturer of high-resolution IP video systems MOBOTIX AG, has released details of a successful project at Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust where it created its largest all digital, hi-res CCTV system within any NHS facility, designed to help protect more than a million people.

The solution designed and implemented by Check Your Security Ltd (CYS), a MOBOTIX Advanced Partner, replaces an aging analogue system and is part of a highly integrated platform including barrier entry help in number plate recognition and VoIP-based help points across the 87,770m2 campus in Westcliff-on-Sea near Southend. The legacy CCTV system was old and offered poor image quality, especially at night, hampering the accurate identification and safety of over a million staff, patients and visitors who use the hospital every year.

People protection

As the hospital is in operation 24/7, 365 days a year, there are always people on site so the Trust looks at CCTV in a totally different way to most commercial enterprises. Rather than being installed for the prime protection of property, its primary focus was on the protection of people, and includes surveillance across the full perimeter, all entry and exit points for both vehicle and foot traffic, as well as key transit points to ensure their safety and well being.

The selection of MOBOTIX based technology and integrator Check Your Security Ltd followed an exhaustive multi-month tender and evaluation process including meetings with numerous local and national suppliers and manufacturers as well as site visits to similar environments. The 18-month project was completed in stages; initial parts have been operational across the site without any issues for seven months.

Kevin Chinnery, head of security for Southend NHS trust comments, “We were impressed by MOBOTIX’s camera system with its 3 megapixel images, two way audio, PoE capability, low light performance and ability to work in any environment without the need for a housing, heaters or fans. The addition of a full surveillance software suite included with the product was also a significant cost saving for us.”

Chinnery adds, “Check Your Security was chosen because of their clear, concise and unbiased representation of the products they put forward. On our site visits, we saw examples of how they had helped other organisations with very similar requirements and they came highly recommended.”

Other benefits

CYS has also integrated MOBOTIX cameras into the Help Point voice call system which is a Cisco Call Manager compatible Help Point system, vehicle barriers and door access control systems to reduce the management overheads for site security staff. With no moving parts within the cameras and a completely digital capture and storage system, the Trust is also estimating a significant increase in reliability of the CCTV system. “The quality of our CCTV is also reducing some of our insurance costs, especially around our car parking which has been awarded Park Mark status,” explains Chinnery.

With a 25-strong site security team, the CCTV also needed to be easily accessible and able to deliver evidential quality images. To meet this need, CYS created integrated sitemaps to instantly pull up all cameras in an incident area at the touch of a button. Footage is stored in a fault-tolerant and tamper-proof 80TB NAS storage cluster and can be quickly searched and copied onto removable media for use by the police if needed. “Many people think of CCTV as just a security measure,” explains Chinnery. “But we have also used it to find a confused elderly patient who wandered out of a ward, to ascertain the cause of several traffic accidents in a car park, for staffing issues and to help the police in several on-going investigations.”

With the Hospital constantly evolving, Chinnery believes the selection of MOBOTIX and CYS gives the Trust a lot of scope: “The project has been deemed a tremendous success by everybody at the hospital and gives us a solid platform to grow and adapt if and when or needs change.” He concludes.

The project uses a mixture of technologies including networking equipment from Cisco, storage appliances from Overland Technology and integration systems from Netgenium. A full case study by CYS on its work with Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is also available and provides a detailed overview of the entire 18-month project.

A website that places CCTV footage in the hands of its members has been given the go ahead and has gone live in beta form.

Internet Eyes offers rewards of up to 1,000 for members who spot shoplifters when viewing the footage and will initially run on a three-month trial basis at 12 shops in the UK.

Plans for the site emerged last year and sparked privacy concerns before the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) delayed the launch of the service while the watchdog carried out an investigation.

The site is now up and running, but an ICO spokesperson said it would continue to monitor Internet Eyes.

"Our CCTV code of practice makes it clear that CCTV operators should use appropriately trained staff to monitor images," the spokesperson said.

"We have provided advice to Internet Eyes on its own data protection compliance. We will be checking to ensure it has followed this and investigate any complaints we receive."

Privacy problems

Privacy groups have been quick to criticise the ICO's decision to not prevent the site from going live.

"This is frankly appalling. Anonymised surveillance systems without control or consent can have no place in a democratic society," Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, told IT PRO.

"The fact these systems may be put in place with no complaint from our official privacy watchdogs such as the ICO shows our laws are not working."

Campaigning group No CCTV said the introduction of Internet Eyes "marks another disturbing chapter in Britain's surveillance society" and described the service as a "Stasi style citizen spy game."

Last year, No CCTV sent a joint letter with Privacy International complaining about site, claiming it broke the Data Protection Act and was a "ludicrous gimmick."

Responding to the attacks, Internet Eyes' managing director, Tony Morgan, noted the surveillance cameras used are already in place anyway, stressing the service is not a game and members are being rewarded for their efforts, not winning prizes.

"All we're doing is trying to reduce shoplifting. There are no voyeuristic opportunities to be had," Morgan told IT PRO.

"It is a massive deterrent as people will know they are being watched by remote viewers [when they enter a shop]."

Furthermore, users are not shown where their cameras are based, they are only given the footage, he added.

"There is nothing to gain from it other than stopping crime. It is the same as Crime Watch," he said.

Internet Eyes, which was set up by Morgan and his wife, is run from Devon and received an investment last year to help with the company's progression.

While the debate on the effectiveness of CCTV rages on, it is still unclear how many cameras are actually being used in the UK.

Francis Aldhouse, ex-deputy Information Commissioner, claimed during a Westminster eForum held today in central London that there was one camera for every 14 people across the isles, with somewhere between one to four million cameras overall.

However, deputy chief constable Nick Gargan with the National Policing Improvement Agency believed these figures were entirely overblown and gave much smaller figures.

"The best estimates range from 30,000 to 60,000 CCTV cameras," he said.

Gragan blamed what the exaggeration of the number of CCTV cameras on inadequate research as well as press coverage.

"The concept of the surveillance society... is actually being played out as quite an alarming narrative within our communities and with that I suspect it is an absolute gift to the media," he added.

"The role of [police] is to put into context the more alarming things that are said."

While the opposing speakers argued about numbers, Isabella Sankey, director of policy at Liberty, said it was the way CCTV was used which "raised concerns."

"We don't oppose use of CCTV," she said, "but there needs to be more public debate [on] decisions of where to put CCTV. It [should be] about where local communities want them to be put rather than the huge explosion and roll out we have seen in the past 10 years."

Sankey also raised the point of a lack of regulation, as there is no official legislation so far that directly determines the correct use of CCTV.

The Conservative party has said it's time to roll back the surveillance state in a new policy outline ahead of a looming national election.

The party has long been promising to cut ID cards if elected, but the new 11-point plan unveiled by Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve shows just how far the Tories want to take such cuts.

In addition to scrapping ID cards and the controversial ContactPoint database, the Tories would remove innocent people's records from the DNA database, tighten data sharing laws and boost the Information Commissioner's powers.

"No-one is suggesting we should not harness IT or surveillance technology to strengthen public protection. I am not amongst those who nostalgically yearn for some luddite return to a pre-technological age," Grieve said today in a speech.

"But, the government's approach to databases and surveillance powers is the worst of all worlds. Intrusive. Ineffective. And enormously expensive," he said, noting that databases keep going over-budget and that doesn't include the costs following data breaches.

He added that the UK has the most CCTV cameras in the world, but just one crime is solved for each 1,000 cameras, and that the DNA database holds details on innocent people, but not all convicted criminals.

"We have a series of IT systems that hoard personal data on us, but the butter fingers of the database state lost the entire nation's child benefit records in the post," he continued. "And we have intrusive surveillance powers now used to monitor children walking home from school, check the permits of paper boys, and even follow dog-walkers to check where their canines poop."

In his speech, Grieve called for fewer massive databases, and said they should hold the least amount of data possible. Individuals should be given control over their own data and which government agencies can access it, he claimed. The party also called for "stronger duties" on the government to protect data.

"Over-reliance on the database state has proved a woefully poor substitute for human judgment and care on the frontline of public service delivery," he added. "The state has encroached on the privacy of the innocent citizen, but delivered precious little in return." In practice, this would lead the party if elected to take 11 steps.

Database state

The first few pertain to databases. The Tories would scrap the National Identity Register and the ContactPoint database. The former is the database backing up the controversial ID card scheme, while the latter contains records of all children in the UK. Both databases have been declared illegal in a report by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.

The Tories would also set out how long DNA should be retained on the National DNA Database, and no longer permanently hold innocent people's details.

It would also restrict local councils from accessing communications data, which some have done under RIPA for offences including benefit fraud and lying about which school your child should attend.

Regulation and legislation

The Tories would also add protection of personal privacy to the British Bill of Rights, and require Privacy Impact Assessments for new laws.

They would force the Home Office to submit its communications data plans to the Information commissioner for his approval. New data sharing powers would have to come into law through legislation, not order, and each government ministry would need to appoint someone to be in charge of data security.

The Information Commissioner would finally see a power boost, and the Tories would see him publish advice on data security in the public sector, consult with the private sector, and look into creating a data best practice kite mark system.

Costs

The Conservative plans come on the same day Labour's business secretary Peter Mandelson suggested big projects like ID cards and Trident could be shelved to save cash.

In response to a question on BBC Radio 4, asking if such projects would be put on the back burner, he said: "They have not been collectively discussed by ministers, but if you are saying to me that we are going to rule things out in advance of our consideration of these matters, I would say it would be foolish to rule out anything."

WiMAX will likely not break through into the consumer sector, but offers specific benefits for the business and public sectors, an industry body has claimed, citing recent trials in Kent.

The first end-to-end live trials of 2.5GHz WiMAX have been running in Kent since June of last year. The Kent Fire and Rescue Service, in addition to Maidstone Borough Council, used WiMAX systems over the past year, according to industry group the Mobile WiMAX Acceleration Group (M-WAG).

Indeed, such uses could be the future for WiMAX, as LTE seems set to win in the consumer space, admitted M-WAG chairman Harry Aldridge, speaking to IT PRO.

"I've never taken the view that it's competition between WiMax andd 3G and LTE," he said.

While he didn't "rule out the possibility it could be a mass market product," Aldridge did say that WiMAX would need an established operator to roll it out. "I haven't seen any signs of that and don't thing its quite likely to happen," he admitted.

Aldridge said LTE is likely going to win with operators for a number of reasons, including licensing deals and more handsets heading that way. "WiMax doesn't have an establish ecosystem of nice little handsets," he said.

But that doesn't mean there's no market for WiMAX.

"The business case isn't necessarily going to be mobile broadband but actually it has a strong niche in what could be described as the fixed nomadic sector," said Aldridge, explaining it will be more about offering untethered DSL than mobile broadband.

Indeed, building a national WiMAX network would require "serious investment", Aldridge said, but he added that it could have a strong business case for use on a local basis, for wholesale, in town centres or in urban areas, for such services CCTV and public safety communications.

"WiMAX has a niche there," he said, adding that as spectrum is released, WiMAX could be a good way to get internet coverage to underserved rural communities, in keeping with the Digital Britain plans.

But that business or public sector market is no small niche, either. "It's a large market and a strong market, almost stronger than the consumer market," he added.

"WiMAX has a fantastic niche in the more infrastructure side of the market."

Kent trials

The Kent Fire and Rescue Service used WiMAX networks to supply video in real time from accident scenes. The trial involved a mocked up car crash at the fire service training centre in Maidstone, he said.

Aside from streaming video from the scene, the network also allowed video conferencing and data transfer at the same time, he said.

He stressed just how important the system could be for services in Maidstone, with its proximity to the Channel Tunnel. Fires do break out in the tunnel, presenting unique challenges for the service. "Managing several trucks with just voice communications is very very difficult," Aldridge explained.

The other set of trials was with the council, which used WiMAX networks for mobile CCTV cameras, building inspectors and community workers.

Maidstone has a collection of portable 3G CCTV cameras to complement its fixed ones. The 3G cameras are quite effective but cost between 500 to 1,000 a year to run, making them a scarce resource for the council.

The trial saw the council use WiMAX instead of 3G for backhaul. The WiMAX cameras offered the same frames per minute as the fixed cameras, several times more than the 3G mobile ones, but at a third of the operating cost.

"The benefit the council sees is they can substitute their fixed cameras with WiMAX for a larger pool of portable cameras," Aldridge said. "It's potentially quite exciting."

The council also used WiMAX networks to trial video for building inspectors, currently a "cumbersome paper-based process," according to Aldridge.

At present, Maidstone inspects 1,800 buildings a year, sending two employees a senior inspector and a junior one. By sending just one worker with a camera relaying data back to the office, the council can cut staff and travel time.

A similar trial was also run by the community safety department, which tested WiMAX's suitability for accessing data on the go so staff don't have to leave and return with files and taking footage as evidence.

Half of city councils have moved their CCTV to IP systems, letting more real-time applications be used by police and other government agencies.

According to numbers obtained by network firm Telindus via a Freedom of Information Request, half of city councils have digitised some of their CCTV with a third doing so over the past four years.

Telindus suggested IP-based cameras allow police to use real-time applications, such as Automatic Number Plate Recognition, and to get up-to-date photos on their mobile computers.

"With today's technological advancements, security and peace of mind should be on the council's terms rather than at the mercy of outdated technology," said Mark Hutchinson, managing director of Telindus, in a statement.

"It is clear that we are on the verge of a digital switchover comparable to that in the television space," he added.

The UK has the highest rate of CCTV cameras in the Western world, with over four million of the devices watching streets, public transport and more. Such coverage has been the subject of much privacy debate, especially as new tech such as talking cameras or those that can 'hear' have been trialled.

Bolton Wanderers Football Club (FC) has installed a new internet protocol (IP) based CCTV system to help keep its entire Reebok Stadium secure.

Security vendor, Network Defence installed 40 IP CCTV cameras into the Barclays Premier League club's current infrastructure, enabling security as well as health and safety officials to gain visibility in parts of the ground that had previously been unreachable.

The roll out has enhanced levels of security and safety for fans and employees during match days. In addition, the network can now also monitor the stadium throughout the business week, when it remains active due to the location of the De Vere Whites Hotel at the Reebok Stadium.

Dave Atkinson, Bolton Wanderers FC's IT manager, said: "The new cameras not only capture any anti-social or dangerous behaviour but also act as a deterrent to those intending to behave in such a manner this helps to increase levels of security in and around the stadium."

He said that, prior to the new roll out the same vendor had also installed a Cisco IP infrastructure that now powers the club's business communications and the club was keen to build on this capability.

"With crowded areas being potentially a prime target for security threats it was imperative to put in place a more comprehensive solution that would give us a wider range of visibility across the club grounds," Atkinson added.

"Since their installation the cameras have already proven their worth by capturing incidents, which have been invaluable in helping us resolve security issues."

Bolton Wanderers plans to roll out a total of 100 cameras. As well as hosting IP CCTV, the club's Cisco IP infrastructure also carries an IP telephony service. It also now plans to focus on energy conservation by integrating building management services into the network.

The Government is to review it's own use of technology data and who can access it, in order to balance the privacy intrusion with the potential for protection.

Speaking to IT trade body Intellect, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith claimed that the public expects the government to use technology to protect them, but added that people also expect privacy. Therefore, the govenrment will be looking into the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) and the DNA database next year.

RIPA gives investigative powers to bodies such as local authorities to use tech such as CCTV to look into flytipping or disrupitive people. Next year, Smith said, the government will look into possible changes to the act, including which public bodies can use it, deciding who will authorise such use, and changing the code of practice which goes along with it.

The government will also produce a white paper on forensics, to look into the records held on the DNA database, and review whose data is held on it possibly removing the DNA records it holds of children under 10 and data taken from people who haven't committed violent crimes.

"These changes will see some people coming off the system. But as I said, we need to strengthen the dividing lines between innocence and guilt and so I want to do more to ensure we get the right people onto the system as well," she explained in her speech, which can be read in full here.

Finding the right balance between civil liberties and using technology to protect against "terrorism, crime and disorder" was one of the most pressing questions the UK faces, Smith added.

"Balancing these individual and collective rights has always been a key responsibility of government. And in an era of rapid technological change, it is right that we should constantly satisfy ourselves that we have got the balance right," she said in the speech.

Smith brought up a piece of graffiti as an example. Last April, the artist known as Banksy painted a mural with the words "One Nation Under CCTV" 30 feet high on a wall just off Oxford Street. "Eight months later, it's still there with a CCTV camera watching over it. And while it's probably done wonders for the value of that gable wall, we're entitled to ask how much this effort, and others like them, have hit the right target."

With that in mind, Smith wondered if we are indeed living in a surveillance society. Her answer likely doesn't surprise. "I don't believe so, not for one moment. But I welcome the debate. And while not condoning graffiti per se, I understand the need to keep revisiting these issues in an open and democratic society," she said.

The Portsmouth City Council has installed a Smart CCTV system which includes behaviour recognition and video analytic software Perceptrak.

The Perceptrak system, which has been installed in car parks, stairwells and streets, has 18 different sets of criteria such as "fast moving car" and "converging people" that activate it.

Once it recognises something suspicious or unusual, it sends an alert to the city centre's control room, where the security officer on duty must take appropriate action.

To date, the city council has installed 142 cameras which are monitored 24 hours a day. However, the city council has access to 1000 cameras with plans to implement Perceptrak on up to 600.

Ray Stead, CCTV manager at Portsmouth City Council, said: "Following a successful trial period in 2006, we decided to install the system on a more permanent basis because of the quantifiable benefits to the control room outcomes."

The system was provided to the city council for free.

The personal details of all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales were lost by a contractor working for the Home Office on an unencrypted USB stick.

Private consulting firm PA Consulting lost the stick, which contained the names and dates of birth of every prison inmate, and in some cases their prison release dates. It also had the details of 43,000 more serious ex-offenders.

A full investigation was being conducted by the Home Office and Police, with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) also informed, with David Smith, ICO Deputy Commissioner, calling the incident "deeply worrying."

CCTV and the premises were checked but the stick was not found. PA Consulting said that it was collaborating with the Home Office on the incident, but offered no comment.

The Home Office said that it had encrypted the data before passing it onto the firm, but the lost memory stick itself was not encrypted and could therefore be accessed by anybody who found the device.

The fear is that if the details fall into the wrong hands it could leave prisoners with previous convictions in danger of retribution by the victim, and could leave the Government open to being sued.

A recent report by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) stated that USB sticks represented a big risk as they lacked security controls and were usually not covered by corporate security policies.

Greg Day, security analyst for security vendor McAfee, said that the loss showed that many businesses were still struggling to bring their own security procedures in line with new data loss legislation.

He said that PA Consulting could face legal action thanks to these amendments, if it was found guilty of "intentionally or recklessly disclosing information."

He said: "The latest loss of information illustrates again that these issues need to be addressed sooner rather than later, in order to avoid further embarrassments and to protect those people whose details may be at risk.

"Had the data on the memory stick been encrypted, its loss would have posed no risk. As a result of insufficient security procedures, this information could provide valuable information to those who may misuse it."

Most schools use CCTV and one in 10 even have their toilets under surveillance.

Some 85 per cent of 250 primary and secondary teachers polled said their schools use surveillance cameras, according to research from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).

The survey showed that over half of teachers felt safer for having the cameras, but nearly a quarter were worried there schools featured hidden cameras they weren't being told about.

The majority some 98 per cent said CCTV was used mainly for security, with another three-quarters saying it was used to prevent vandalism. But half admitted it was being used to monitor students' behaviour.

While the majority of such cameras are at entrance doors, one in ten teachers said toilets were also under surveillance. And, seven per cent said CCTV was being used in classrooms.

Nearly one in six said their school had over 20 cameras.

"No-one really knows enough about the use of CCTV in schools - it's a very new issue," said Dr Mary Bousted, ATL's general secretary, adding that the body had set up a working group on the topic and will produce guidelines for schools and colleges.

She said staff should be involved in decisions about how CCTV is used in schools, and its use should be strictly controlled.

"Although surveillance in schools can have some positive outcomes, such as discouraging vandalism and violence, we think there are some instances where it should be strictly controlled," Bousted said.

A report released last year by the Royal Academy of Engineering warned against potential for misuse with CCTV.

Scientists at the University of Portsmouth have made CCTV cameras even smarter,' creating a technology that allows the cameras to hear' a crime taking place and spin to catch it on film.

The cameras will be able to use artificial intelligence software to allow them to detect the sounds of breaking glass, someone shouting, or the noise of a crowd gathering, and will be able to turn to face the scene within about 300 milliseconds - the same amount of time it would take a person to turn their head if they heard a scream. The software would then alert the camera operator immediately to the suspicious behaviour.

The university said the benefits of this technology not only include alerting camera operators to potential crimes in real time, but it will also mean police officers won't have to sit through hours of recordings to find the crime footage looking for the action or noise indicating the crime, because the software will be able to identify them.

Dr David Brown, director of the university's Institute of Industrial Research, said he expects the technology could get even smarter over time.

"The longer artificial intelligence is in the software, the more it learns," he explained. "Later versions will get cleverer as time goes on, perhaps eventually being able to identify specific words being said or violent sounds."

The scientists are also working on adapting and developing software to identify visual patterns as well, including a person raising their arms suddenly or someone running.

The researchers hope these smart cameras' will help dramatically in cutting response time to the scenes as well as catching more crimes on tape.

According to figures obtained by the London Assembly's Liberal Democrats last year, just one in five crimes get solved despite spending 200 million over ten years installing and maintaining 10,000 CCTV cameras across London.

The party called for a rollback of surveillance, and earlier this month the Home Affairs Committee told parliament the government should cut back on data collection in order to prevent Britain from becoming a "surveillance society."

Technology is necessary to battle terror, crime and other threats but it must be balanced with the right to liberty, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said.

Speaking to Labour-friendly lobby group Institute for Public Policy Research, Brown said that the UK faces "unprecedented threats" from terrorism, global organised crime and trafficking of drugs and people.

"It could be said that for too long we have used nineteenth century means to solve twenty first century problems. Instead we must have twenty first century methods to deal with twenty first century challenges," Brown said. Whereas before crime fighting depended on fingerprints, police on patrol and photographic identification, now the government can make use of DNA, CCTV and biometrics, he said.

He continued: "But, as I will also suggest today, just as we need to employ these modern means to protect people from new threats, we must at the same time do more to guarantee our liberties."

The Labour government has frequently been criticised for creating a Big Brother state, with rampant use of CCTV and schemes such as the national ID card and database.

Brown stressed that the government has no plans to make it compulsory for people to carry an ID card, but that it will effectively be required to prove ID, such as when opening a bank account or registering with a GP.

He added that the identity card scheme has been redesigned so that people's names and addresses will be held on a separate database from their biometric data.

"Opponents of the identity card scheme like to suggest that its sole motivation is to enhance the power of the state - but in fact it starts from a recognition of the importance of something which is fundamental to the rights of the individual: the right to have your identity protected and secure," he said. "This is why, despite years of exaggeration about its costs and its implications for liberty, public support for it remains so strong."

A poll in the Daily Telegraph at the end of last year showed that support for the scheme had slipped to 43 per cent.

With regards to CCTV, Brown praised the technology for halving crime in Newcastle and helping police investigate the London underground bombings in 2005. But he added that the government must put in place strong safeguards to protect liberty and privacy.

His favour of the technology was made clear, however: "Let us not pretend that CCTV is intrinsically the enemy of liberty. Used correctly, with the right and proper safeguards, CCTV cuts crime, and makes people feel safer - in some cases, it actually helps give them back their liberty, the liberty to go about their everyday lives with reassurance."

Aside from ID cards and CCTV, Brown went on to praise the use of DNA in fighting crime, in particular the National DNA database, which he said matched 40,000 suspects with crimes in one year.

The full text of his speech can be viewed here.

The government must guard against the drift into a "surveillance society", only keeping data on individuals as long as is absolutely necessary, a parliamentary committee said on Sunday.The Home Affairs Committee called on the government to adopt a principle of what it called "data minimisation", collecting only essential information and keeping it under a tight curb."What we are calling for is an overall principle of 'least data, for least time'," said committee chairman Keith Vaz."We have all seen over the past year extraordinary examples of how badly things can go wrong when data is mishandled, with potentially disastrous consequences."Last year a government department lost in the post two unencrypted computer discs containing the personal and banking details of 25 million people claiming child benefit.Concern was also raised after it emerged that security services had recorded a conversation between a prison inmate and his local parliamentarian.The Information Comissioner's Office said earlier this year that there has been nearly a hundred such data breaches in the past six months.The committee rejected charges that Britain was already a surveillance state but warned against "function creep" -- the use of data for purposes other than for which it was collected.It also warned against adding microphones to surveillance cameras that would make an already high level of information collection even more personally intrusive."What we are concerned with is the tendency to collect more and more data just because the technology allows it and for data to be used beyond the purposes it was initially collected for," said Vaz."For example, we would completely object to any attempt to use data on children for the purposes of predictive criminal profiling rather than child protection."The committee said the information commissioner should produce to parliament an annual report on the state of surveillance in Britain.The report could have implications for the national identity card scheme, Guy Herbert, General Secretary of NO2ID said. "Minimisation of data is common sense for both privacy and security. A pity then, that the National Identity Scheme offers precisely the opposite. Its whole conception is to join together as much personal information possible and keep it available forever - maximisation of data.He added that "grinding on with its mass surveillance database projects in the face of these recommendations would be astonishing arrogance."

A newly-announced UK data centre set to open at the end of the year will feature top end physical security straight out of a spy film.

Set to open in the fourth quarter of this year, SAVVIS' new data centre will be sited in Slough.

The data centre will include physical security features such as biometric entrance scanning, weight sensitive entrance floor panels, bullet-proof glass, always-on CCTV across the site, and a little something called 'man traps' - essentially a space between two doors where people are held if they aren't authorised for access. Might not be enough to stop James Bond or Jason Bourne from sneaking through, but thankfully they're fictional.

"Data centres are expensive to build and the data they hold is very important data," Richard Warley, international managing director for SAVVIS, told IT PRO. "We do have a lot of customers in the financial sector and they look for physical and logical security."

The facility will be connected to SAVVIS data centres near Reading and at London's Docklands for disaster recovery and business continuity purposes. The first phase will cost 35 million pounds and cover 36,500 square feet on the first floor of the building, said Warley. The second phase will offer another 30,000 square feet on the ground floor.

SAVVIS offers technology-agnostic managed hosting and network services to companies in financial sector, media and entertainment and others. The firm offers the basic option of renting space as well as fully managed services and specialised utility-based services.

The firm said the financial services sector - including SAVVIS' customers like the London Stock Exchange - are demanding more space and closer proximity to the grid.

The data centre is one of several the firm has built recently across Europe, Asia and North America as part of a two-year, $400 million (205 million) investment.

Newcastle City Council has deployed the UK's first traffic management system to monitor live traffic cameras via mobile phones.

The authority's Planning and Transportation Department is using the new system to link its staff to its network of 60 CCTV traffic cameras in real time. The aim is to achieve better visibility of traffic conditions in order to facilitate a more speedy resolution of traffic problems as they happen.

It also plans to expand the hosted CCTV-to-mobile service to other key public services, including the police, bus companies and traffic wardens across the city.

The new Qeeps system, from UK provider Vemotion Interactive, will connect to the council's digital video recording (DVR) cameras. These monitor trunk roads and intersections, via internet protocol (IP) connections, and receive both real-time or recorded video footage. This uses a specially patented version of the H.264 encoding standard for low-bandwidth, GPRS-enabled authorised devices without the need for any additional onsite equipment.

It will integrate with the council's existing Traffic Control Centre, allowing for key members of the planning and transportation department to maintain a vital flow of information, even out of hours.

"The Qeeps service has been very effective at maximising the potential of the system we already have in place," explains Peter Wightman, group manager Traffic and Transport Department, Newcastle City Council.

Qeeps has proved particularly useful at weekends and evenings and facilitates a better degree of responsiveness to any traffic incident throughout the city. "Qeeps is powerful and flexible enough to offer the same functions as if the operator was in the control room." Wightman added.

Andy Graham, a director of accredited Qeeps installer Barrier Surveillance, which deployed Newcastle's system, said: "Installing and configuring Qeeps to work with the existing CCTV was very straightforward. There was no impact on services during installation and the department was able to connect to Qeeps using their mobile phones immediately."

The City of Manchester has announced an order for internet protocol (IP) based surveillance or CCTV cameras as part of its project to migrate its entire communications infrastructure.

Working with specialist integrator C-Ways, the city council has selected a federated Omnicast 4.1 IP CCTV system from vendor, Genetec.

"Where before we could only use either unicast or multicast functions, the federation will allow us to use both those functionalities simultaneously, offering better management of bandwidth," said David Walsh, technical installations manager from the City of Manchester's Command and Control Centre.

The Centre has five locations throughout the city to manage video with its older, fixed analogue systems and will use the federation to reroute all video back to one central monitoring station using IP. As each system is progressively migrated and rerouted back to the central monitoring station, there will no longer be a need for the other control centres, which it anticipates will deliver significantly reduced operating costs.

The upgrade also allows Manchester City Council to work with existing infrastructure and hardware providers, which Walsh said was "very important when spending public money". It also accommodates plans to populate the new platform with existing cameras and to integrate third-party video and audio analytics technologies.

One month into the system implementation, the authority has already migrated 30 cameras from the Greater Manchester Police and 20 cameras from the city's largest municipal park over to the Omnicast platform.

Walsh added: "Unlike an analogue installation, the systems were up and running within hours and our partners could not be happier with the new system and its many benefits."

The authority has also previously stated its intention to be one of the first IP-enabled cities.

And only yesterday, Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable David Thompson defended CCTV as an effective crime deterrent after Metropolitan Police counterpart, Detective Chief Inspector Mike Neville, from Scotland Yard was reported as criticising the technology, saying only three per cent of London's street robberies had been solved using CCTV images.

London enforcing low emission zone with CCTV system

Earlier this week, London mayor Ken Livingstone launched the Low Emission Zone, which means all diesel lorries over 12 tons must meet specific emissions targets in order to enter the zone.

Livingstone said: "In London, two thirds of emissions of the most dangerous air pollutants come from road traffic, and the majority of these are caused by the vehicles the zone will target - the heaviest, most polluting diesel-engined lorries, coaches, and buses."

The zone is being enforced with London's network of CCTV cameras and Vehicle Number Plate Recognition analysis system. The cameras will identify the registration number of such vehicles and compare them to databases to check the lorry is up to specifications.

The programme will be extended to vehicles over 3.5 tons on 7 July.

Birmingham rolls out mobile projects

Service Birmingham - a tieup between the council and Capita - has chosen Northgate Information Solutions to provide mobile services for the city.

The mobile services will be used, mostly by the council's housing department, to speed up delivery, boost efficiency, support flexible working and cut carbon emissions.

Roger Preece, director of ICT at Service Birmingham, said: "We are committed to providing residents with public services that are tailored to their needs, that they only have to ask for once, and that are delivered in ways that they prefer. Through working with Northgate and other partners, we will provide staff and citizens alike with personalised and responsive services, more efficiently."

Government looks for disaster tech

The government's Technology Strategy Board is investing 10 million in research and development in gathering data in complex environments, including disaster mitigation and response.The board will also be looking at using technology to manage traffic, roads and pollution. It is hoped the innovations which emerge could be deployed by police and fire services, as well as local authorities.

TSB chief executive Iain Gray said: "The ability to gather information in complex or difficult environments is vital for organisations such as the emergency services, transport authorities and power companies. Many UK companies have particular strengths in sensing, instrumentation and imaging technologies, and in telecommunications and intelligent systems. Bringing this expertise together would give the UK the capability to offer complete tracking and monitoring solutions, and to exploit the worldwide demand for such technology."

Submissions for project proposals opened last week and close 8 May.

Sound recording on CCTV cameras has been called "highly intrusive" by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) - an opinion shared by most people, according to new research.

Seven out of 10 people polled by ICM for the ICO said they opposed the idea of such cameras recording conversations.

Jonathan Bamford, assistant commissioner at the ICO, said: "CCTV enjoys a lot of public support and can have benefits such as helping with the detection of crime. However, it can also be extremely intrusive, monitoring ordinary individuals as they go about their day to day business."

In a new CCTV code of practice launched today, the ICO warned organisations to only use the technology in highly exceptional circumstances.

Bamford added: "It is essential that organisations and businesses use CCTV responsibly in order to maintain public trust and confidence in the use of CCTV and to prevent its use becoming increasingly viewed as part of the surveillance society."

The poll also showed that half of the thousand people surveyed were not aware that information collected by CCTV cameras is covered by the data protection act.

Fishing regulators go with Leeds digital pen

North Eastern Sea Fisheries Committee

Officers write with the pen on paper in the usual way, but a camera embedded in the device digitises the notes and sends them directly to a computer, saving data inputting time.

Ian Jones, Senior Consultant at Innovation Leeds said: "The user can be anywhere from the quayside to actually out on the boat and instantly send the data captured on a form back to the central database using a combination of Bluetooth technology and a standard mobile phone."

Giles Bartlett, Environmental Officer with North Eastern Sea Fisheries said: "North Eastern Sea Fisheries were looking at looking at modernising our approach to data capture and had been considering the use of PDAs when we started working with Innovation Leeds. For ease of use and serviceability in the unusual environmental conditions in which fishery officers worked the pen solution seemed ideal."

Peterborough taxis get digital CCTV

Peterborough City Council

iKabs

Ken Gray, the city council's principal taxi enforcement officer, said: "This is an exciting project that we are carrying out with all 191 Hackney carriages in Peterborough. The whole point is for the protection of the public and for the driver."

Hackney intends to rollout the iKabs system nationally. Supported by advertising on a flat-screen monitor inside the car, iKabs does not cost the driver or the local authority anything.

Wigan saves 90,000 with Civica policing software

Civica's

Wigan Council

CameraWatch

Data Protection Act

Datpro

IT PRO

A bold initiative to identify terrorist suspects using surveillance cameras and facial recognition software is being developed by biometrics experts at the National Policing Improvement Agency.

The technology uses two-dimensional and three-dimensional images to achieve greater accuracy, and is due to be trialled at Euston railway station later this year. The trial forms part of a wider clampdown on security at key transport hubs.

A spokesman for the National Policing Improvement Agency said: "The technology is now in its second phase and we are examining its feasibility. This CCTV is sure to be more effective because it will search against databases."

If implemented, the technology would be used with a security service database of terrorist suspects to identify terrorist suspects along with minor offenders.

The images will be cross-referenced against photographs of criminals.

Euston already has a network of digital CCTV cameras that will be able to run facial recognition software.

"CCTV has been hugely successful in catching images of criminals on London Underground and on National Rail" said a spokesman for the British Transport Police.

The 7 July suicide bombers were captured on CCTV as they travelled to London from Luton.

In June, Ali Zine, a prolific pickpocket, was jailed for eight months after BTP officers at Euston recognised him from CCTV images that had been circulated to police stations.

The images were of him stealing a mobile phone at Piccadilly Underground Station on 6 May.

Leeds is set for a 1.8 million expansion to its CCTV system using a new wireless network, the council has announced.

Set in areas in East Leeds, the 500-camera system will monitor 53 tower blocks and sheltered housing schemes for antisocial behaviour and crime.

Funded by East North East Homes Leeds and developed by the council's specialist IT service Innovation Leeds, the new system will be run on a WiMax network, with the cameras remotely controlled.

"The fact that the CCTV is driven using an ultra modern wireless network gives the system a degree of flexibility that systems constrained by wires and cables cannot have," said Doug Sutherland, head of Innovation Leads, in a statement. "The cameras are monitored from a state-of-the-art control room but images from them will also be accessible by people on the ground in the area, allowing police and Community Safety Officers to view real time footage on laptops or hand-held devices."

The digital, wireless design is more flexible than previous systems, allowing temporary cameras to be set up to target specific areas for antisocial behaviour or fly-tipping, said Steve Hunt, the chief executive of East North East Homes Leeds.

He added: "Because the system is entirely digital it allows us to protect residents' privacy by electronically masking areas such as windows to prevent images being captured from these areas."

The wireless network will not opened up for public use, but spare capacity could be used for IP telephony and resident support services, the council said.