32 Security Dealer & Integrator / www.SecurityInfoWatch.com June 2017
Access Control
N
ever before was
cybersecurity so
prevalent than at
April's ISC West;
and once that topic
was introduced, the subject of encryp-
tion was not far behind. Protecting
your access control customers from
hackers is imperative, and anti-hack-
ing encryption schemes should be a
mandatory tool to thwart them.
In general, most integrators under-
stand what encryption does but may
find it somewhat difficult to describe.
If you are in that class, read on.
Using encryption, information or
electronic data – such as the number
on an ID badge – can be converted
How to stop
the hacking
of card-based
physical security
systems
By Scott Lindley
into a code called ciphertext, which
cannot normally be translated except
by those who have the key. Encryp-
tion techniques should be used within
access control systems to protect the
confidentiality of data that is stored on
your customers' computer systems or
transmitted over the Internet or other
computer networks.
Why Encryption Has
Become Important
When the topic of hacking used
to be discussed, the concern of
integrators was to simply stop
unauthorized people from cloning
card information; however, as was
highlighted at ISC West, one of the
leading gateways for hackers to attack
customers' enterprise IT systems
is through their physical security
systems – especially their contactless
card access control systems.
ink about it: When a 125 KHz
proximity card gets powered-up by
getting in "proximity" of a reader, it
immediately begins to transmit its
fixed binary code number; however,
Wiegand – the industry standard
over-the-air protocol commonly
used to communicate credential data
from a card to an electronic access
reader – is no longer inherently
secure due to its original obscure
and non-standard nature.
us, to penetrate enterprise IT
systems, hackers simply use the fixed
binary to enter the systems and access
specific computers. en, those com-
puters act as gateways to reach the
Encryption 101
Access Control