Unformatted Attachment Preview
IBM Global Technology Services
Thought Leadership White Paper
Becoming a smarter city:
Six public safety projects
that deliver quick results
IBM Global Technology
Services
Public
safetyi
2
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
Contents
2 Executive summary
3 Introduction
4 Protecting public rail and other transportation systems
6 Defending city streets against criminal and terrorist acts
8 Lowering security costs while strengthening protection
9 Securing confidential systems and information from
unauthorized access
10 Maintaining access to critical information and services
when disaster strikes
12 Protecting citizens with faster and more coordinated
crisis response
14 Taking the next steps to smarter public safety
15 Conclusion
16 For more information
Executive Summary
Preventing crime. Anticipating and averting terrorist threats.
Responding in real time to disasters and emergencies. These
are some of the most pressing challenges facing today’s city
leaders. And they are the expectations of an increasingly
demanding and digitally savvy public. Public safety greatly
influences where people choose to live, work and play, and
where businesses choose to locate their operations. And
advances in technology are changing the way they think about
public safety. The opportunities afforded by technology are
demanding new ways of working and enabling cities to mount
a more sophisticated defense against an ever-evolving threat
landscape. They are also forcing a paradigm shift in how
citizens expect municipal leaders and public agencies to act in
the face of such threats.
New approaches focus on automating the capture and analysis
of information from all kinds of business processes and devices,
then applying the intelligence to help cities proactively
recognize events and coordinate responses in real time.
They are enabling cities to break down the communications
barriers that often exist between first responders, jurisdications
and supporting agencies like public works, weather and
transportation. Thoughtfully employed, these technologies are
transforming public safety and the cities that implement them.
They are positioning those cities to address unpredictability
and risk and to improve quality of life for citizens. Today, cities
around the world are actively using technologies to:
• Automatically alert first responders of malicious activities,
events or actions that impact citizens’ safety
• Conduct forensic searches for specific objects, colors,
activities and human attributes across millions of indexed
video clips and retrieve results in seconds and minutes
• Proactively predict events and vulnerabilities based on vast
amounts of information captured and analyzed
• Replace dozens of aging, fragmented security systems
with integrated solutions that strengthen protection while
substantially mitigating the rising cost and complexity of
security
• Control access to information and applications dynamically
using rules-based identity management
• Make critical business data available to all users, irrespective
of their location, to enable continuous delivery of vital
services to citizens, even in the event of an outage
• Provide decision makers with a real-time, holistic view of
the city’s operations and resources, helping public agencies
coordinate emergency response efforts and marshal
resources in minutes and hours instead of days.
IBM Global Technology Services
This is the essence of smarter public safety. Empowering
organizations with the insights and intelligence to
address—and prevent—potentially harmful events with
speed and efficiency.
This paper looks at these and other examples of smarter
public safety, not just to illustrate what the latest technologies
make possible, but to explain how IBM is helping cities use
these technologies to achieve results quickly while making
transformational improvements in public safety.
3
Introduction
The growing complexity and rise of diverse, unpredictable
threats and natural disaster are changing the security landscape
and rewriting the rules for public safety. Against a backdrop of
shrinking budgets and resources, new technologies like cloud
computing are enabling city leaders to strike back, changing
the way they approach security and public safety, and arming
even small cities with tools to manage threats with speed and
efficiency—and do it cost-effectively. Rather than investigate
events after the fact, smarter public safety shifts the focus to
prevention, helping cities implement the strategies and tactics
to anticipate and prevent attacks before they materialize.
Cities that have made the transition are employing analytics to
build their intelligence and assess threat potential proactively.
They are automating video search and analysis, establishing
rules for the detection of unusual activities and the tripwires
for notification of first responders. They are anticipating the
kinds of risks that might inhibit continuous operations when an
unforeseen event occurs. They are sharing security information
across agencies, improving operational effectiveness and
allowing for a coordinated, citywide response to incidents.
The cities profiled in this paper have made these changes.
They have supplanted the traditional reactive approach to
public safety. Instead of implementing safeguards after the
damage is done, they are actively preempting and diffusing
threats—and they are seeing the results (see table). And
while it’s hard to quantify the exact financial benefits of
threat avoidance, these cities are making immediate and
measurable gains from reduced crime and more rapid
response to emergencies.
4
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
Smarter Public Safety Results
Criminal acts across a European public rail network are detected
dynamically and investigated rapidly using advanced video event
correlation and analysis. Investigators can search through millions
of recorded events and identify perpetrators in minutes, speeding
apprehension and averting future crime.
Two U.S. cities are now able to issue citywide alerts and coordinate their
response to threats and emergencies via a centralized command and
operations center capable of consolidating security intelligence and
feeds from cameras, sensors and other sources.
A U.S. state decreased the cost of its security operations by as much as
30 percent while significantly increasing system uptime and availability
by outsourcing its security operations and implementing a fully integrated
suite of security assessment, monitoring and management services.
A European city reduced its time frame for new employee activation by
100 percent—enabling same-day productivity—by automating identity
management and establishing policies to control access to critical data.
A city agency achieved 40 percent savings by implementing a cloudbased disaster recovery solution for critical information and services,
which automates backup and provides recovered files in hours, instead
of days.
In less than one year, a major Brazilian city accelerated its crisis
response to annual storms and flooding by integrating information and
processes for more than 20 different city agencies in a single intelligent
operations center.
Protecting public rail and other
transportation systems
Few issues are as important to urban professionals as public
transportation1. Dependence on these systems for safe, reliable
transit is growing, especially as gas prices continue to surge.
But a city’s transportation systems also have major implications
for businesses and city leaders focused on commerce,
development and the environment. A major disruption in
operations can have a debilitating effect on the local economy,
not to mention public trust.
Like most mass transit systems, this European country’s
sprawling nationwide rail network and numerous access points
made it an easy target for criminal activity. Onsite security
guards could only monitor what their eyes could see, leaving
many railway assets (tunnels, power and substations, bridges
and railyards) exposed. Video cameras were capturing events
but not enabling them to be dealt with until after the crime
had been committed. As a result, significant time and money
were being spent to repair and recover rail system assets that
had been vandalized or stolen. This prompted the rail provider
to implement IBM’s smart surveillance solution, Video
Correlation and Analysis Suite (VCAS), across its rail network.
Today, at nearly 150 critical sites along its railways, millions
of events are recorded in real time by digital cameras and
sensors, then indexed and analyzed using vision and pattern
recognition software. Alerts are triggered automatically when
events defined by the rail provider occur, such as when luggage
is abandoned on the platform or people loiter for extended
periods. The solution delivers quick results: within seconds,
onsite security guards are directly notified on monitors at their
control center.
IBM Global Technology Services
5
Furthermore, the rail provider is able to avoid the costs and
delays associated with manual, around-the-clock inspections
of station platforms and rail cars before they leave the yard.
Graffiti and other uncontrolled activities have lessened
considerably in areas where the solution has been implemented.
Not surprisingly, the provider’s ability to better manage risk has
resulted in higher customer satisfaction and ridership.
What is smart surveillance?
Alerts are also triggered if a certain sequence of events occurs,
for example, if a person on the platform dwells on or beyond
the yellow line for more than the specified amount of time.
This ability to pre-define the objects, activities or scenarios
that trigger alerts enables the rail provider’s security forces
to concentrate exclusively on incidents that require their
intervention or decision making. Instead of laboriously viewing
every bit of video captured, they can spend their time attending
to developing situations that truly warrant their attention.
But captured video is only part of the story. What makes this
surveillance system so powerful is its ability to integrate the
output from multivendor sensors, detectors and event analysis
systems and algorithms. Solution deployment was simplified
by the open architecture of IBM’s surveillance system,
which facilitated integration with the rail provider’s existing
surveillance infrastructure and its diverse collection of analog
and digital cameras. This lowered the provider’s capital outlay
and accelerated return.
More and more cities already challenged by resource
constraints are finding it necessary to monitor public areas
to keep them safe and accessible. Unlike traditional video
surveillance solutions, which put the onus on people to sift
through volumes of captured content, smart surveillance
solutions leverage intelligence, automation and analytics to
proactively prevent, and swiftly detect and react to suspicious
events.
IBM’s smart surveillance solution, Video and Correlation
Analysis Suite, analyzes captured video as events happen,
in real time. It dynamically integrates and correlates events
from all kinds of cameras, sensors and detection systems,
and sends alerts when established safety thresholds are
exceeded. Video sequences are continuously analyzed with
location-based situational awareness to intelligently monitor
the movement and activities of people and objects against
established norms and patterns.
All activities are indexed, enabling operators to initiate
specialized searches for specific events, combining search
criteria, like time, area, clothing or object color, and personal
characteristics. The ability to retrieve results in a matter of
seconds revolutionizes the investigative process, exposing
perpetrators and threats before damages escalate.
6
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
In addition to these capabilities, IBM can help rail providers
and city agencies to go beyond monitoring the scene. Data
generated by biometric devices, license plate and facial
recognition systems, fire and smoke detectors, motion
detectors and onsite ATMs can be analyzed. By cross-indexing
and correlating all of this information in a single repository, a
rail provider can develop a more complete and accurate picture
of suspicious events. This provides the ability to manage the
data generated, perform forensic event-based retrieval and
identify long-term statistical patterns of activity. Operators can
submit a wide range of queries to locate objects of a certain
type, color and size at a particular time. Indexed metadata
generated for each recorded event simplifies and accelerates
the search across the millions of events catalogued by the
system daily. This allows security forces to attain key insights
about troubling events in a matter of seconds and minutes, and
act quickly to prevent any further disturbances.
Defending city streets against criminal
and terrorist acts
Following 9/11, cities across the U.S. were forced to examine
their own preparedness for a terrorist attack and ensuing crisis
situation. Most stepped up public safety measures, increasing
public awareness and their capacity to react swiftly in the event
of an attack. Many recognized that a major weakness of 9/11
was the lack of coordination of resouces and response among
all of the agencies trying to help. Two cities that saw it as a
critical variable in the success of their own counterterrorism
and public safety measures made the decision to implement a
citywide surveillance network that could dramatically improve
their ability to detect, prevent and respond to threats.
In both cases, IBM helped city engineers design and deploy an
innovative surveillance strategy and infrastructure to capture,
monitor and fully index video for real-time and forensic public
safety applications. Each city erected a unified fiber network
to provide base coverage of the most densely populated
downtown areas, supplemented by an extensive wireless
infrastructure to provide additional coverage, where required.
Hundreds of new surveillance cameras were installed on the
networks, and existing cameras were linked. Today, thousands
of cameras in each city cover landmarks, venues, intersections,
walkways and waterways, and all of their output is fed to a
single, centralized command and operations center.
As with the European rail network, public as well as private
cameras capture and store video that can be used in criminal
investigations. But for these cities, the command center is the
security intelligence hub and coordination point for emergency
response. It is where algorithm-driven visual analysis identifies
potential incidents and automatically notifies authorities.
The command center also has the ability to process and
IBM Smart Vision Suite: Real-time video indexing and data analysis
IBM Global Technology Services
analyze video feeds from the private sector. The feeds are
then consolidated with feeds from publicly owned cameras
and sensors. Instead of asking questions about what others are
seeing at the scene, command center operators can see exactly
what local operators are seeing. They can receive alerts and
query information on hundreds of millions of events. They
can also have eyes on the scene when the 911 calls come in
from citizens. As soon as the caller’s location is identified—
usually in seconds—real-time feeds from the area can be
viewed in the command center and then shared with the city’s
network of first responders, ensuring a highly coordinated
response to threats. Such collaboration is essential to resolving
issues efficiently and reducing the impact of crisis situations.
The command center’s dashboard allows real-time notifications
to be relayed to first responders instantly through a web portal,
emails and handheld devices. The center’s ability to see deep
and wide enables dispatchers to identify dangerous situations
for police and other responders, improving their safety. At
any point in time, command center dispatchers can determine
what resources are available, where they are located and how
best to apply them. This real-time, integrated view of city
emergencies and resources enables officials to direct the most
appropriate response to each situation, while preserving critical
services and resources. These cities can marshal resources
in minutes and hours, instead of days, to warn citizens and
provide targeted assistance. Furthermore, investigators who
used to spend most of their time chasing down information can
now locate what they are looking for in a matter of seconds,
allowing them to perform investigations faster and, in many
cases, prevent criminal behavior from developing. Likewise,
first responders are able to react more rapidly. They are
more likely to get to the scene in time to avert violence and
victimization, potentially saving lives.
7
Other municipal agencies have also benefited. Smart video
surveillance is enabling city transportation officials to monitor
daily traffic patterns, alert citizens to bottlenecks and improve
traffic flow. Public works officials are able to monitor cityowned vehicles, equipment and the illegal dumping of garbage
and debris.
As the population of these cities has grown, so have their
public safety networks. Built to scale easily, the networks
enable new cameras to be easily integrated. IBM’s unique
wireless solutions allow the cities to deploy large numbers of
additional cameras at the exact locations required, but also
transport real-time video wirelessly, saving city taxpayers the
cost of building out the wired infrastructure (estimated to
be in the millions). Equipping first responders with mobile
network access has also reduced dependence on the wired
infrastructure. The ability to connect from their vehicles
increases their effectiveness, speeding response while helping
to control infrastructure costs.
8
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
Investigators who used to spend most of
their time chasing down information can
now locate what they are looking for in a
matter of seconds.
The results achieved on city streets are being extended
to city facilities. IBM is helping cities implement public
safety solutions to protect the critical infrastructure of their
school systems, roadways, power distribution centers and
financial centers. And the implementations can accommodate
accelerated time frames. Dedicated surveillance systems and
the supporting network infrastructure can be up and running
in days, not months.
Lowering security costs while
strengthening protection
The rising cost of security is an issue for all levels of
government, especially as malicious attacks of public networks
increase and become more expensive to resolve. The financial
toll of a breach over and above defense and settlement expenses
can be exorbitant, as agencies must factor in the cost of
controlling damages and covering the losses of affected parties.
For one U.S. state governor, escalating security costs were
compounded by the very real fear that current security systems
were unable to protect the state’s resources. Motivated by
the state’s vulnerability to attack and frustrated by attempts
to address current operational inefficiencies in-house, the
governor made the bold decision to outsource the state’s
security infrastructure. The goal: to deliver far better
protection while reducing costs to taxpayers. Realizing that
security was not a core competency, state leaders agreed that
they were putting citizens and resources at risk by continuing
to manage security internally.
At a fundamental level, the state needed to consolidate its
security infrastructure, eliminate redundancies, allocate
resources more efficiently, and implement best practices
statewide, across all of its agencies. To keep costs down, the
state was not looking to remediate all potential vulnerabilities.
Rather, it aimed to prioritize spending on active threats
that would have the greatest impact to its operations. So
implementing services that would help state leaders manage
risk was key.
Working with IBM, the state’s technology organization
implemented a full suite of security assessment and
management services to identify and address weaknesses and
provide in-depth monitoring to reduce vulnerabilities and
prevent breaches on an ongoing basis. The deployment was
completed in about six months.
IBM’s Managed Security Services centered on protecting
the state’s network and systems. They include firewall
management, intrusion detection and prevention, vulnerability
management and security event log management. They
provide protection from both known and unknown threats
via continuous security monitoring and immediate response
when potentially damaging incidents are uncovered internally
on the state’s network perimeter. Their ability to aggressively
eliminate malicious traffic helps optimize the state’s uptime
and availability.
IBM Global Technology Services
The managed services also lowered the state’s security-related
operational costs, which were spiraling out of control, due in
large part to individual agencies’ complex array of aging,
multivendor security systems. These systems had become
complex and difficult to manage, and hiring and training
employees to maintain and troubleshoot the fragmented
assortment of applications and devices was costly. The decision
to replace those systems with an integrated security solution
enabled the state to significantly lower its operational costs—
by as much as 30 percent. This was facilitated by visibility from
a single management console, which provided the state’s
security operations with a consolidated view of the entire
security infrastructure. In turn, the state was able to reallocate
many of its operational resources to a more strategic role.
The state’s decision to comply with the Federal Information
Security Management Act (FISMA) helped to bolster its
IT budget, but also to improve constituents’ perception of
its security protections. IBM’s FISMA gap analysis enabled
the state to evaluate its security posture against the FISMA
standards, identify and remediate inconsistencies, and build
a compliant environment with the mandated management
reporting and operational and technical controls.
Today, state leaders continue to make great strides in
protecting the state’s financial assets and intellectual property,
while boosting its reputation for citizen safety and security.
The task is made easier through the use of IBM’s advanced
analytics, which are helping the state identify new exposures
continuously. To further reduce its risk of data breaches and
avoid compliance failures, state leaders are considering IBM’s
9
security information and event management system. The
system can enhance the value of the state’s current security
systems by providing proactive threat detection with behavioral
and heuristic-based detection techniques.
Securing confidential systems and
information from unauthorized access
Following decades as a coal mining center, the small city
of Karviná in the Czech Republic has emerged a major
commercial, cultural and tourist hub in Central Europe.
Modernization of the city, along with the explosive growth of
data, devices and connectivity, has made information security
increasingly difficult and complex for Karviná to manage.
10
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
As with other growing cities, threats to Karviná’s systems
and information became more sophisticated and relentless,
and addressing potential security breaches was becoming
more costly. At the same time, Karviná’s small size limited its
IT resources. The city’s manual processes for provisioning
and monitoring access to systems, implementing controls
and enforcing them were overwhelming its IT personnel.
The processes also created serious security risks because
they were prone to error and because manual processing
enabled terminated employees to retain access for several
days. City leaders wanted a simpler, more cost-effective
means of protecting their vital systems and information from
unauthorized access, without soaking up precious resources.
Karviná implemented IBM’s Identity and Access Management
(IAM) solution to centralize and automate its time-consuming
access control processes, simplify administration and
monitoring, and prevent unauthorized access to the city’s
systems and information. Its rules-based identity management
system enables Karviná to control employees’ access to
critical data and applications based on their position, role and
department. Administrators set and enforce policies for who
has access to what information, when they can access it, and
from what devices and locations.
Today, new employees become productive,
with access to all systems, in a few hours,
compared with several days previously.
Since employees’ roles and responsibilities are constantly
changing, Karviná can use the system to review, reconfirm
or update employees’ privileges, or promptly revoke them
when necessary. The system uses an automatic account
reconciliation process to continuously detect and correct (or
remove) any employee accounts that are not in agreement with
predefined rules. Orphan accounts are automatically removed
and employee accounts are deactivated within hours of an
employee’s termination. This allows Karviná to proactively
protect against policy violations while ensuring the security of
its sensitive data and applications.
The Identity and Access Management solution has had a
dramatic impact on Karviná’s administrative efficiency and has
lowered its costs. The city has seen a 100 percent improvement
in the speed of new employee activations. Today, new
employees become productive, with access to all systems, in
a few hours, compared with several days previously. Perhaps,
more important, access management for all of Karviná’s user
accounts can be handled by a single IT administrator, lowering
costs while enabling the rest of the IT staff to focus on
strategic improvements that have citywide reach.
Maintaining access to critical information
and services when disaster strikes
Continuity planning and recovery are cornerstones of a city’s
resilience and long-term vitality. Disaster readiness reduces
the disruption to city operations and productivity, and it
enables public agencies and other support organizations to
play a stabilizing role in the community. Service continuity is
especially critical during disasters. It ensures that basic human
services are provided to those who are most in need.
For one human services agency in the U.S., that means
bringing education, employment programs and social services
to more than 200,000 people in its home city and surrounding
regions. Along with a wide range of programs to improve the
quality of life for children, seniors and families in the city’s
vulnerable neighborhoods, the agency leverages its network of
IBM Global Technology Services
resources to deliver “people-centered recovery efforts” during
disasters. Ironically, the agency’s systems were not designed for
disaster situations, lacking the necessary speed and efficiency.
What is cloud computing?
Cloud computing is an approach for rapidly delivering IT
services and applications via the Internet utilizing a flexible
pricing model.
The cloud enables cities to lower the cost of IT by alleviating the
need to make capital investments in hardware and software, or
pay for idle computing resources. Instead, costs are based on
usage, so you pay only for the resources used.
Cloud computing also goes beyond cost savings by allowing
users to access the latest applications and capabilities in
support of your services.
After two destructive hurricanes struck the area, the agency
was called into action. So, too, were its backup and recovery
systems, which were ill-equipped for a disaster. As agency
personnel worked to connect the people living in the city with
the services they needed, then assist thousands of evacuees
from other affected cities, the systems’ inefficiencies became
crystal clear. Faced with requests to provide both emergency
and continuing care, including employment, housing and
health services, the need to record and store information in
support of all of the affected individuals put a massive strain on
the existing systems.
The agency lacked sufficient redundancy for its data backup
and recovery systems. Tape backups were handled manually
at headquarters, with a third party handling offsite vaulting.
Administrative staff at the agency’s seven locations and 60
11
remote sites were responsible for storing their own backups.
With all of the agency’s offsite storage situated locally, recovery
could easily be compromised. Further, with 500 gigabytes of
data growing at an annual rate of 40 percent and the need to
retain daily, weekly and monthly backups to meet business
requirements, the agency’s storage needs and costs were
escalating rapidly, along with concerns about meeting strict
compliance requirements.
Agency leaders chose a cloud-based managed backup and
recovery solution to reduce their operational risk and allow
implementation in six months or less. IBM SmartCloud
Managed Backup enabled the agency to replace its manual, doit-yourself approach with daily, automated incremental backups
of its business and client data, as well as communications
from its email servers and individual user mailboxes, at all
agency locations. The cloud solution also offered an important
financial benefit. With all of the hardware, software and
support services provided by IBM, the nonprofit agency didn’t
have to worry about any additional capital expenditures or
upfront costs.
The automated system simplified the agency’s backup
and restore processing. Using a customized web portal,
administrators could update backup and restore settings
and criteria, initiate service and monitor all data backup and
recovery activity. As data volumes changed, the solution
adjusted automatically to meet the new backup requirements.
As a result, the number of IT resources needed to oversee
backup and recovery dropped significantly, and the agency was
able to redirect personnel to more pressing IT challenges. The
automated system also provided rapid access to information;
users could view backup files and recovered data in hours
instead of days. In addition, the agency was confident that it
would be able to meet all relevant compliance requirements for
data backup and retention.
12
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
While the agency’s primary data center facilities remained at
headquarters, a redundant site was established 1,200 miles
away at an IBM Business Continuity and Recovery Center.
The redundant site enables agency staff to access critical
business data at all times, even in the event of an outage.
Auto-generated event and summary reports, configured to the
agency’s needs, monitor backup completions and track failure
patterns. With better insight into service usage and historical
trends, the agency has been able to lower its risk. Plus, the
solution’s scalable managed protection and pay-as-you-go
pricing have enabled the agency to control storage costs while
better managing its regulatory compliance requirements. IBM
has been able to reduce total cost of ownership for clients by as
much as 40 percent while improving service levels.
Why choose cloud-based data protection services?
Cloud-based data protection solutions reduce capital outlay,
limiting the need for hardware expenditures. There is no need
to keep adding disks and drives or to deploy a redundant and
dedicated phyisical infrastructure. Users can easily switch
from a capital expense model to a monthly operating expense
model, often with considerable savings.
Data storage is scalable and elastic in the cloud. As storage
needs increase, a cloud-based backup service can scale
easily to accommodate the difference. The cloud’s systematic
and automatic backups also increase availability and enable
faster recovery when disruptions occur. Data can be restored
instantly regardless of a user’s location or time zone.
Protecting citizens with faster and more
coordinated crisis response
Preventing the impact of disasters was already a significant
concern for Rio de Janeiro when a series of flash floods and
landslides claimed lives and caused widespread infrastructure
damage in 2010. The torrential summer storms were not
uncommon, but their effects could have been diminished if
Rio had a single, central location capable of monitoring the
unfolding disasters and overseeing the response. With the 2014
World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics on the horizon, it also
raised serious questions about Rio’s emergency preparedness
and pointed to the dire need for better communication
between the people and systems that served the city.
If Rio’s meteorologists, engineers, field operations and crisis
response personnel had worked together, would citizens have
been better prepared for the disaster? If the operational silos
that separated these organizations were eliminated and their
systems were able to share information in real time, would it
have been possible to proactively determine where flooding
and landslides were most likely to occur, where shelters
and hospital beds would most likely be needed, and which
evacuation routes would be the safest? If such communications
were possible, would Rio’s response have been swifter and
more effective?
Such questions prompted Rio’s city leaders to collaborate
with IBM on the development of a solution to integrate the
city’s core operations to enable real-time communications
and a more proactive approach to crisis management. Rio’s
IBM Global Technology Services
intelligent operations center was up and running 16 weeks
later, and in less than one year, the center was integrating
information and processes from over 20 different city
agencies—municipal and state departments as well as private
utility and transportation companies. This provided officials
with a holistic view of city operations at any point in time,
allowing them to handle emergencies with all hands on deck.
Rio intelligent operations center 2
Today representatives from each agency actually sit side by
side in the operations center and look at live feeds of city
streets and facilities. They are collaborating to assess and
respond to threats, but also to manage the flow of traffic and
public transportation systems, and monitor the efficiency
of power and water supplies. They have the ability to work
together to mobilize response teams, prepare shelters and
deploy needed equipment and supplies, as situations warrant.
They are actively sharing information and making group
decisions dynamically.
13
The operations center relies on a system that uses situational
awareness and predictive analytics to sense and coordinate
response to emergencies. The system’s high-resolution weather
forecasting capability, for example, uses a global weather model
and algorithms to predict heavy rains. The system pulls data
from Rio’s river basin, topographic surveys, historical rainfall
logs and radar feeds, helping operators calculate the effects on
traffic, power and other city services. When urgent situations
are detected, like changes in the flood forecast, an automated
alert system notifies city officials and emergency personnel
via email and instant messaging. Working alongside Rio’s
own radar and the satellite from Aeronautics, the system
allows more time for Rio’s officials to prepare for storms
and prevent disaster.
Operators are able to monitor dozens of real-time data
feeds, which provide them with the insights to anticipate
looming problems and help city leaders put defenses in place
to lessen their impact. Not only is the city better able to
handle emergencies, city leaders can use the same tools to
prepare Rio for major events like public concerts, parades and
sporting events. In addition, first responders are using the
wealth of information collected to tweak their system settings
and operational procedures to speed response and better
coordinate their efforts on citizens’ behalf.
When urgent situations are detected, like
changes in the flood forecast, an automated
alert system notifies city officials and
emergency personnel via email and instant
messaging.
14
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
In January 2012, Rio’s ability to respond was tested when three
downtown office buildings collapsed. Almost immediately, the
operations center notified fire and civil defense departments
and contacted gas and electric companies to shut down service
around the scene. Rapid notifications also went out to close the
subway underneath the site, block streets, dispatch ambulances,
alert local hospitals and send in heavy equipment to remove
the rubble.
collapsed, citizens were alerted via Twitter, Facebook and
other social media. On any given day, the operations center
issues notifications about traffic accidents, street closings
and any other events that are likely to impact citizens’ daily
routine. This empowers citizens to make choices that minimize
personal inconvenience but also improve the overall flow of
city operations. The result is a city that is more attractive to
residents, tourists and business investors alike.
Taking the steps to smarter public safety
Why establish an intelligent operations center?
Most agencies capture enormous amounts of data. Intelligent
operations centers (IOC) provide the means to share
that information across organizational and jurisdictional
boundaries.
Though IOCs serve as central coordination points for
information, they need not be in one physical location. The
important thing is that they provide access for all city domains,
from first responders to transportation, building and energy
management, health and education.
Cities can deploy a dedicated IOC at a designated facility or
leverage a shared IOC at an IBM data center or on the cloud.
Over and above the public safety benefit, the system provides
Rio’s citizens with access to information that improves
the way they live and work. The same weather and traffic
information used by city administrators is shared with citizens
on mobile devices and social networks. When the buildings
Cities are increasingly looking for ways to anticipate, prevent
and respond to threats. But developing a cost-effective
roadmap for smarter public safety—one that can assimilate
massive quantities of information and provide decision makers
with a comprehensive, real-time view of city operations—can
extend beyond a city’s own capabilities.
IBM has extensive experience helping city, state and national
agencies leverage technology to protect citizens. Our
technologies and services are enabling them to integrate
and automate their security operations, transform stores of
collected information into intelligence, protect against cyber
threats, and provide the advanced analytics to streamline
disaster preparation and response. It is the foundation of
smarter public safety and the basis of our service offerings.
Applying the best practices identified from working with
municipal IT departments and decision makers, we have
developed a suite of services and technologies that can be
customized to align with each city’s unique budgetary and
functional requirements. We offer an array of resources to help
cities and agencies address their public safety needs.
IBM Global Technology Services
One place to begin is our Smarter Public Safety portal to learn
more about our physical security solutions, connect with our
experts and download additional case studies. Talk to your
IBM representative about how we can perform an assessment
of your physical security environment to better understand
your current controls and processes, and develop a strategy for
improving them.
Our Smarter Security and Resilience portal explains how it’s
possible to change your security approach from “experience
and react” to “anticipate and adjust.” Our Business Continuity
Index tool can provide you with an accurate picture of your
stance on risk and resilience, along with recommendations
for improvement. And our complimentary Security Health
Scan analyzes your network to determine vulnerabilities and
provides recommendations on how to remediate threats. These
are just a few of the tools that provide insights you can leverage
on your path to smarter public safety.
Our technology professionals will help assess your
environment and customize and implement a smarter public
safety strategy capable of delivering tangible value, including
cost-effective service delivery, reduced complexity and higher
availability. Our disciplined approach, based on decades of IT
service experience, is designed to deliver measured business
outcomes and exceptional value for our clients. Today, it is
enabling IBM to help cities of every size and geography to
better meet the safety and security needs of their citizens.
And we can do the same for your city.
15
Conclusion
Every day, cities around the world face an increasing barrage
of threats from a widening array of unpredictable sources.
As enablers of progress and development, city leaders will
continue to take center stage in the decision to implement
smarter public safety. By focusing on public safety initiatives
that take advantage of new technologies, analytics-driven
intelligence and automation, cities can overcome the
challenges that impede their ability to predict threats and take
preventive actions today. City leaders who can integrate siloed
systems and fragmented city operations, share information
across state and municipal departments, and deliver a
coordinated, real-time response to emergencies are not only
better prepared to address the expanding scope and impact
of threats, they strengthen their ability to govern effectively.
They are not only better able to assure citizens’ safety, they
are better equipped to build a safe environment for growth
and commerce.
However, rapid payback will be critical for public safety
initiatives, especially with limited funding available for such
improvements. With cloud’s low cost of entry and potential
to significantly reduce public safety and security expenses, it
holds considerable promise for today’s budget-constrained
cities. City leaders who can use this and other IT solutions
to demonstrate results quickly will make the greatest gains
financially and operationally.
Armed with the advanced tools and processes to deliver
meaningful intelligence and enable seamless collaboration
among public agencies and first responders, cities can begin
to proactively address threats and speed rescue and response.
They take a major step forward in improving citizens’ safety
and providing the quality of life needed to drive business
development and economic growth.
16
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
For more information
To learn more about how IBM is helping cities implement
smarter public safety, please contact your IBM representative
or IBM Business Partner, or visit
ibm.com/smartercities
© COPYRIGHT IBM CORPORATION 2012
IBM Global Services
Route 100
Somers, NY 10589
U.S.A.
Produced in the United States of America
November 2012
IBM, the IBM logo and ibm.com are trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both.
If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first
occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (® or TM), these
symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by
IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may
also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. Other
product, company or service names may be trademarks or service marks
of others. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web at
“Copyright and trademark information” at
ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml
This document is current as of the initial date of publication and may be
changed by IBM at any time.
Not all offerings are available in every country in which IBM operates.
The performance data discussed herein is presented as derived under
specific operating conditions. Actual results may vary. It is the user’s
responsibility to evaluate and verify the operation of any other products
or programs with IBM products and programs.
THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED
“AS IS” WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF NONINFRINGEMENT. IBM products are warranted according to the terms
and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided.
Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to
change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives
only. Actual available storage capacity may be reported for both
uncompressed and compressed data and will vary and may be less
than stated.
“Livable Cities: Challenges and opportunities for policymakers”
Economist Intelligence Unit, November 2010.
1
2
Photo courtesy of Raphael Lima
Please Recycle
GPW12345-USEN-00
IBM Global Technology Services
Thought Leadership White Paper
Becoming a smarter city:
Six public safety projects
that deliver quick results
IBM Global Technology
Services
Public
safetyi
2
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
Contents
2 Executive summary
3 Introduction
4 Protecting public rail and other transportation systems
6 Defending city streets against criminal and terrorist acts
8 Lowering security costs while strengthening protection
9 Securing confidential systems and information from
unauthorized access
10 Maintaining access to critical information and services
when disaster strikes
12 Protecting citizens with faster and more coordinated
crisis response
14 Taking the next steps to smarter public safety
15 Conclusion
16 For more information
Executive Summary
Preventing crime. Anticipating and averting terrorist threats.
Responding in real time to disasters and emergencies. These
are some of the most pressing challenges facing today’s city
leaders. And they are the expectations of an increasingly
demanding and digitally savvy public. Public safety greatly
influences where people choose to live, work and play, and
where businesses choose to locate their operations. And
advances in technology are changing the way they think about
public safety. The opportunities afforded by technology are
demanding new ways of working and enabling cities to mount
a more sophisticated defense against an ever-evolving threat
landscape. They are also forcing a paradigm shift in how
citizens expect municipal leaders and public agencies to act in
the face of such threats.
New approaches focus on automating the capture and analysis
of information from all kinds of business processes and devices,
then applying the intelligence to help cities proactively
recognize events and coordinate responses in real time.
They are enabling cities to break down the communications
barriers that often exist between first responders, jurisdications
and supporting agencies like public works, weather and
transportation. Thoughtfully employed, these technologies are
transforming public safety and the cities that implement them.
They are positioning those cities to address unpredictability
and risk and to improve quality of life for citizens. Today, cities
around the world are actively using technologies to:
• Automatically alert first responders of malicious activities,
events or actions that impact citizens’ safety
• Conduct forensic searches for specific objects, colors,
activities and human attributes across millions of indexed
video clips and retrieve results in seconds and minutes
• Proactively predict events and vulnerabilities based on vast
amounts of information captured and analyzed
• Replace dozens of aging, fragmented security systems
with integrated solutions that strengthen protection while
substantially mitigating the rising cost and complexity of
security
• Control access to information and applications dynamically
using rules-based identity management
• Make critical business data available to all users, irrespective
of their location, to enable continuous delivery of vital
services to citizens, even in the event of an outage
• Provide decision makers with a real-time, holistic view of
the city’s operations and resources, helping public agencies
coordinate emergency response efforts and marshal
resources in minutes and hours instead of days.
IBM Global Technology Services
This is the essence of smarter public safety. Empowering
organizations with the insights and intelligence to
address—and prevent—potentially harmful events with
speed and efficiency.
This paper looks at these and other examples of smarter
public safety, not just to illustrate what the latest technologies
make possible, but to explain how IBM is helping cities use
these technologies to achieve results quickly while making
transformational improvements in public safety.
3
Introduction
The growing complexity and rise of diverse, unpredictable
threats and natural disaster are changing the security landscape
and rewriting the rules for public safety. Against a backdrop of
shrinking budgets and resources, new technologies like cloud
computing are enabling city leaders to strike back, changing
the way they approach security and public safety, and arming
even small cities with tools to manage threats with speed and
efficiency—and do it cost-effectively. Rather than investigate
events after the fact, smarter public safety shifts the focus to
prevention, helping cities implement the strategies and tactics
to anticipate and prevent attacks before they materialize.
Cities that have made the transition are employing analytics to
build their intelligence and assess threat potential proactively.
They are automating video search and analysis, establishing
rules for the detection of unusual activities and the tripwires
for notification of first responders. They are anticipating the
kinds of risks that might inhibit continuous operations when an
unforeseen event occurs. They are sharing security information
across agencies, improving operational effectiveness and
allowing for a coordinated, citywide response to incidents.
The cities profiled in this paper have made these changes.
They have supplanted the traditional reactive approach to
public safety. Instead of implementing safeguards after the
damage is done, they are actively preempting and diffusing
threats—and they are seeing the results (see table). And
while it’s hard to quantify the exact financial benefits of
threat avoidance, these cities are making immediate and
measurable gains from reduced crime and more rapid
response to emergencies.
4
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
Smarter Public Safety Results
Criminal acts across a European public rail network are detected
dynamically and investigated rapidly using advanced video event
correlation and analysis. Investigators can search through millions
of recorded events and identify perpetrators in minutes, speeding
apprehension and averting future crime.
Two U.S. cities are now able to issue citywide alerts and coordinate their
response to threats and emergencies via a centralized command and
operations center capable of consolidating security intelligence and
feeds from cameras, sensors and other sources.
A U.S. state decreased the cost of its security operations by as much as
30 percent while significantly increasing system uptime and availability
by outsourcing its security operations and implementing a fully integrated
suite of security assessment, monitoring and management services.
A European city reduced its time frame for new employee activation by
100 percent—enabling same-day productivity—by automating identity
management and establishing policies to control access to critical data.
A city agency achieved 40 percent savings by implementing a cloudbased disaster recovery solution for critical information and services,
which automates backup and provides recovered files in hours, instead
of days.
In less than one year, a major Brazilian city accelerated its crisis
response to annual storms and flooding by integrating information and
processes for more than 20 different city agencies in a single intelligent
operations center.
Protecting public rail and other
transportation systems
Few issues are as important to urban professionals as public
transportation1. Dependence on these systems for safe, reliable
transit is growing, especially as gas prices continue to surge.
But a city’s transportation systems also have major implications
for businesses and city leaders focused on commerce,
development and the environment. A major disruption in
operations can have a debilitating effect on the local economy,
not to mention public trust.
Like most mass transit systems, this European country’s
sprawling nationwide rail network and numerous access points
made it an easy target for criminal activity. Onsite security
guards could only monitor what their eyes could see, leaving
many railway assets (tunnels, power and substations, bridges
and railyards) exposed. Video cameras were capturing events
but not enabling them to be dealt with until after the crime
had been committed. As a result, significant time and money
were being spent to repair and recover rail system assets that
had been vandalized or stolen. This prompted the rail provider
to implement IBM’s smart surveillance solution, Video
Correlation and Analysis Suite (VCAS), across its rail network.
Today, at nearly 150 critical sites along its railways, millions
of events are recorded in real time by digital cameras and
sensors, then indexed and analyzed using vision and pattern
recognition software. Alerts are triggered automatically when
events defined by the rail provider occur, such as when luggage
is abandoned on the platform or people loiter for extended
periods. The solution delivers quick results: within seconds,
onsite security guards are directly notified on monitors at their
control center.
IBM Global Technology Services
5
Furthermore, the rail provider is able to avoid the costs and
delays associated with manual, around-the-clock inspections
of station platforms and rail cars before they leave the yard.
Graffiti and other uncontrolled activities have lessened
considerably in areas where the solution has been implemented.
Not surprisingly, the provider’s ability to better manage risk has
resulted in higher customer satisfaction and ridership.
What is smart surveillance?
Alerts are also triggered if a certain sequence of events occurs,
for example, if a person on the platform dwells on or beyond
the yellow line for more than the specified amount of time.
This ability to pre-define the objects, activities or scenarios
that trigger alerts enables the rail provider’s security forces
to concentrate exclusively on incidents that require their
intervention or decision making. Instead of laboriously viewing
every bit of video captured, they can spend their time attending
to developing situations that truly warrant their attention.
But captured video is only part of the story. What makes this
surveillance system so powerful is its ability to integrate the
output from multivendor sensors, detectors and event analysis
systems and algorithms. Solution deployment was simplified
by the open architecture of IBM’s surveillance system,
which facilitated integration with the rail provider’s existing
surveillance infrastructure and its diverse collection of analog
and digital cameras. This lowered the provider’s capital outlay
and accelerated return.
More and more cities already challenged by resource
constraints are finding it necessary to monitor public areas
to keep them safe and accessible. Unlike traditional video
surveillance solutions, which put the onus on people to sift
through volumes of captured content, smart surveillance
solutions leverage intelligence, automation and analytics to
proactively prevent, and swiftly detect and react to suspicious
events.
IBM’s smart surveillance solution, Video and Correlation
Analysis Suite, analyzes captured video as events happen,
in real time. It dynamically integrates and correlates events
from all kinds of cameras, sensors and detection systems,
and sends alerts when established safety thresholds are
exceeded. Video sequences are continuously analyzed with
location-based situational awareness to intelligently monitor
the movement and activities of people and objects against
established norms and patterns.
All activities are indexed, enabling operators to initiate
specialized searches for specific events, combining search
criteria, like time, area, clothing or object color, and personal
characteristics. The ability to retrieve results in a matter of
seconds revolutionizes the investigative process, exposing
perpetrators and threats before damages escalate.
6
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
In addition to these capabilities, IBM can help rail providers
and city agencies to go beyond monitoring the scene. Data
generated by biometric devices, license plate and facial
recognition systems, fire and smoke detectors, motion
detectors and onsite ATMs can be analyzed. By cross-indexing
and correlating all of this information in a single repository, a
rail provider can develop a more complete and accurate picture
of suspicious events. This provides the ability to manage the
data generated, perform forensic event-based retrieval and
identify long-term statistical patterns of activity. Operators can
submit a wide range of queries to locate objects of a certain
type, color and size at a particular time. Indexed metadata
generated for each recorded event simplifies and accelerates
the search across the millions of events catalogued by the
system daily. This allows security forces to attain key insights
about troubling events in a matter of seconds and minutes, and
act quickly to prevent any further disturbances.
Defending city streets against criminal
and terrorist acts
Following 9/11, cities across the U.S. were forced to examine
their own preparedness for a terrorist attack and ensuing crisis
situation. Most stepped up public safety measures, increasing
public awareness and their capacity to react swiftly in the event
of an attack. Many recognized that a major weakness of 9/11
was the lack of coordination of resouces and response among
all of the agencies trying to help. Two cities that saw it as a
critical variable in the success of their own counterterrorism
and public safety measures made the decision to implement a
citywide surveillance network that could dramatically improve
their ability to detect, prevent and respond to threats.
In both cases, IBM helped city engineers design and deploy an
innovative surveillance strategy and infrastructure to capture,
monitor and fully index video for real-time and forensic public
safety applications. Each city erected a unified fiber network
to provide base coverage of the most densely populated
downtown areas, supplemented by an extensive wireless
infrastructure to provide additional coverage, where required.
Hundreds of new surveillance cameras were installed on the
networks, and existing cameras were linked. Today, thousands
of cameras in each city cover landmarks, venues, intersections,
walkways and waterways, and all of their output is fed to a
single, centralized command and operations center.
As with the European rail network, public as well as private
cameras capture and store video that can be used in criminal
investigations. But for these cities, the command center is the
security intelligence hub and coordination point for emergency
response. It is where algorithm-driven visual analysis identifies
potential incidents and automatically notifies authorities.
The command center also has the ability to process and
IBM Smart Vision Suite: Real-time video indexing and data analysis
IBM Global Technology Services
analyze video feeds from the private sector. The feeds are
then consolidated with feeds from publicly owned cameras
and sensors. Instead of asking questions about what others are
seeing at the scene, command center operators can see exactly
what local operators are seeing. They can receive alerts and
query information on hundreds of millions of events. They
can also have eyes on the scene when the 911 calls come in
from citizens. As soon as the caller’s location is identified—
usually in seconds—real-time feeds from the area can be
viewed in the command center and then shared with the city’s
network of first responders, ensuring a highly coordinated
response to threats. Such collaboration is essential to resolving
issues efficiently and reducing the impact of crisis situations.
The command center’s dashboard allows real-time notifications
to be relayed to first responders instantly through a web portal,
emails and handheld devices. The center’s ability to see deep
and wide enables dispatchers to identify dangerous situations
for police and other responders, improving their safety. At
any point in time, command center dispatchers can determine
what resources are available, where they are located and how
best to apply them. This real-time, integrated view of city
emergencies and resources enables officials to direct the most
appropriate response to each situation, while preserving critical
services and resources. These cities can marshal resources
in minutes and hours, instead of days, to warn citizens and
provide targeted assistance. Furthermore, investigators who
used to spend most of their time chasing down information can
now locate what they are looking for in a matter of seconds,
allowing them to perform investigations faster and, in many
cases, prevent criminal behavior from developing. Likewise,
first responders are able to react more rapidly. They are
more likely to get to the scene in time to avert violence and
victimization, potentially saving lives.
7
Other municipal agencies have also benefited. Smart video
surveillance is enabling city transportation officials to monitor
daily traffic patterns, alert citizens to bottlenecks and improve
traffic flow. Public works officials are able to monitor cityowned vehicles, equipment and the illegal dumping of garbage
and debris.
As the population of these cities has grown, so have their
public safety networks. Built to scale easily, the networks
enable new cameras to be easily integrated. IBM’s unique
wireless solutions allow the cities to deploy large numbers of
additional cameras at the exact locations required, but also
transport real-time video wirelessly, saving city taxpayers the
cost of building out the wired infrastructure (estimated to
be in the millions). Equipping first responders with mobile
network access has also reduced dependence on the wired
infrastructure. The ability to connect from their vehicles
increases their effectiveness, speeding response while helping
to control infrastructure costs.
8
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
Investigators who used to spend most of
their time chasing down information can
now locate what they are looking for in a
matter of seconds.
The results achieved on city streets are being extended
to city facilities. IBM is helping cities implement public
safety solutions to protect the critical infrastructure of their
school systems, roadways, power distribution centers and
financial centers. And the implementations can accommodate
accelerated time frames. Dedicated surveillance systems and
the supporting network infrastructure can be up and running
in days, not months.
Lowering security costs while
strengthening protection
The rising cost of security is an issue for all levels of
government, especially as malicious attacks of public networks
increase and become more expensive to resolve. The financial
toll of a breach over and above defense and settlement expenses
can be exorbitant, as agencies must factor in the cost of
controlling damages and covering the losses of affected parties.
For one U.S. state governor, escalating security costs were
compounded by the very real fear that current security systems
were unable to protect the state’s resources. Motivated by
the state’s vulnerability to attack and frustrated by attempts
to address current operational inefficiencies in-house, the
governor made the bold decision to outsource the state’s
security infrastructure. The goal: to deliver far better
protection while reducing costs to taxpayers. Realizing that
security was not a core competency, state leaders agreed that
they were putting citizens and resources at risk by continuing
to manage security internally.
At a fundamental level, the state needed to consolidate its
security infrastructure, eliminate redundancies, allocate
resources more efficiently, and implement best practices
statewide, across all of its agencies. To keep costs down, the
state was not looking to remediate all potential vulnerabilities.
Rather, it aimed to prioritize spending on active threats
that would have the greatest impact to its operations. So
implementing services that would help state leaders manage
risk was key.
Working with IBM, the state’s technology organization
implemented a full suite of security assessment and
management services to identify and address weaknesses and
provide in-depth monitoring to reduce vulnerabilities and
prevent breaches on an ongoing basis. The deployment was
completed in about six months.
IBM’s Managed Security Services centered on protecting
the state’s network and systems. They include firewall
management, intrusion detection and prevention, vulnerability
management and security event log management. They
provide protection from both known and unknown threats
via continuous security monitoring and immediate response
when potentially damaging incidents are uncovered internally
on the state’s network perimeter. Their ability to aggressively
eliminate malicious traffic helps optimize the state’s uptime
and availability.
IBM Global Technology Services
The managed services also lowered the state’s security-related
operational costs, which were spiraling out of control, due in
large part to individual agencies’ complex array of aging,
multivendor security systems. These systems had become
complex and difficult to manage, and hiring and training
employees to maintain and troubleshoot the fragmented
assortment of applications and devices was costly. The decision
to replace those systems with an integrated security solution
enabled the state to significantly lower its operational costs—
by as much as 30 percent. This was facilitated by visibility from
a single management console, which provided the state’s
security operations with a consolidated view of the entire
security infrastructure. In turn, the state was able to reallocate
many of its operational resources to a more strategic role.
The state’s decision to comply with the Federal Information
Security Management Act (FISMA) helped to bolster its
IT budget, but also to improve constituents’ perception of
its security protections. IBM’s FISMA gap analysis enabled
the state to evaluate its security posture against the FISMA
standards, identify and remediate inconsistencies, and build
a compliant environment with the mandated management
reporting and operational and technical controls.
Today, state leaders continue to make great strides in
protecting the state’s financial assets and intellectual property,
while boosting its reputation for citizen safety and security.
The task is made easier through the use of IBM’s advanced
analytics, which are helping the state identify new exposures
continuously. To further reduce its risk of data breaches and
avoid compliance failures, state leaders are considering IBM’s
9
security information and event management system. The
system can enhance the value of the state’s current security
systems by providing proactive threat detection with behavioral
and heuristic-based detection techniques.
Securing confidential systems and
information from unauthorized access
Following decades as a coal mining center, the small city
of Karviná in the Czech Republic has emerged a major
commercial, cultural and tourist hub in Central Europe.
Modernization of the city, along with the explosive growth of
data, devices and connectivity, has made information security
increasingly difficult and complex for Karviná to manage.
10
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
As with other growing cities, threats to Karviná’s systems
and information became more sophisticated and relentless,
and addressing potential security breaches was becoming
more costly. At the same time, Karviná’s small size limited its
IT resources. The city’s manual processes for provisioning
and monitoring access to systems, implementing controls
and enforcing them were overwhelming its IT personnel.
The processes also created serious security risks because
they were prone to error and because manual processing
enabled terminated employees to retain access for several
days. City leaders wanted a simpler, more cost-effective
means of protecting their vital systems and information from
unauthorized access, without soaking up precious resources.
Karviná implemented IBM’s Identity and Access Management
(IAM) solution to centralize and automate its time-consuming
access control processes, simplify administration and
monitoring, and prevent unauthorized access to the city’s
systems and information. Its rules-based identity management
system enables Karviná to control employees’ access to
critical data and applications based on their position, role and
department. Administrators set and enforce policies for who
has access to what information, when they can access it, and
from what devices and locations.
Today, new employees become productive,
with access to all systems, in a few hours,
compared with several days previously.
Since employees’ roles and responsibilities are constantly
changing, Karviná can use the system to review, reconfirm
or update employees’ privileges, or promptly revoke them
when necessary. The system uses an automatic account
reconciliation process to continuously detect and correct (or
remove) any employee accounts that are not in agreement with
predefined rules. Orphan accounts are automatically removed
and employee accounts are deactivated within hours of an
employee’s termination. This allows Karviná to proactively
protect against policy violations while ensuring the security of
its sensitive data and applications.
The Identity and Access Management solution has had a
dramatic impact on Karviná’s administrative efficiency and has
lowered its costs. The city has seen a 100 percent improvement
in the speed of new employee activations. Today, new
employees become productive, with access to all systems, in
a few hours, compared with several days previously. Perhaps,
more important, access management for all of Karviná’s user
accounts can be handled by a single IT administrator, lowering
costs while enabling the rest of the IT staff to focus on
strategic improvements that have citywide reach.
Maintaining access to critical information
and services when disaster strikes
Continuity planning and recovery are cornerstones of a city’s
resilience and long-term vitality. Disaster readiness reduces
the disruption to city operations and productivity, and it
enables public agencies and other support organizations to
play a stabilizing role in the community. Service continuity is
especially critical during disasters. It ensures that basic human
services are provided to those who are most in need.
For one human services agency in the U.S., that means
bringing education, employment programs and social services
to more than 200,000 people in its home city and surrounding
regions. Along with a wide range of programs to improve the
quality of life for children, seniors and families in the city’s
vulnerable neighborhoods, the agency leverages its network of
IBM Global Technology Services
resources to deliver “people-centered recovery efforts” during
disasters. Ironically, the agency’s systems were not designed for
disaster situations, lacking the necessary speed and efficiency.
What is cloud computing?
Cloud computing is an approach for rapidly delivering IT
services and applications via the Internet utilizing a flexible
pricing model.
The cloud enables cities to lower the cost of IT by alleviating the
need to make capital investments in hardware and software, or
pay for idle computing resources. Instead, costs are based on
usage, so you pay only for the resources used.
Cloud computing also goes beyond cost savings by allowing
users to access the latest applications and capabilities in
support of your services.
After two destructive hurricanes struck the area, the agency
was called into action. So, too, were its backup and recovery
systems, which were ill-equipped for a disaster. As agency
personnel worked to connect the people living in the city with
the services they needed, then assist thousands of evacuees
from other affected cities, the systems’ inefficiencies became
crystal clear. Faced with requests to provide both emergency
and continuing care, including employment, housing and
health services, the need to record and store information in
support of all of the affected individuals put a massive strain on
the existing systems.
The agency lacked sufficient redundancy for its data backup
and recovery systems. Tape backups were handled manually
at headquarters, with a third party handling offsite vaulting.
Administrative staff at the agency’s seven locations and 60
11
remote sites were responsible for storing their own backups.
With all of the agency’s offsite storage situated locally, recovery
could easily be compromised. Further, with 500 gigabytes of
data growing at an annual rate of 40 percent and the need to
retain daily, weekly and monthly backups to meet business
requirements, the agency’s storage needs and costs were
escalating rapidly, along with concerns about meeting strict
compliance requirements.
Agency leaders chose a cloud-based managed backup and
recovery solution to reduce their operational risk and allow
implementation in six months or less. IBM SmartCloud
Managed Backup enabled the agency to replace its manual, doit-yourself approach with daily, automated incremental backups
of its business and client data, as well as communications
from its email servers and individual user mailboxes, at all
agency locations. The cloud solution also offered an important
financial benefit. With all of the hardware, software and
support services provided by IBM, the nonprofit agency didn’t
have to worry about any additional capital expenditures or
upfront costs.
The automated system simplified the agency’s backup
and restore processing. Using a customized web portal,
administrators could update backup and restore settings
and criteria, initiate service and monitor all data backup and
recovery activity. As data volumes changed, the solution
adjusted automatically to meet the new backup requirements.
As a result, the number of IT resources needed to oversee
backup and recovery dropped significantly, and the agency was
able to redirect personnel to more pressing IT challenges. The
automated system also provided rapid access to information;
users could view backup files and recovered data in hours
instead of days. In addition, the agency was confident that it
would be able to meet all relevant compliance requirements for
data backup and retention.
12
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
While the agency’s primary data center facilities remained at
headquarters, a redundant site was established 1,200 miles
away at an IBM Business Continuity and Recovery Center.
The redundant site enables agency staff to access critical
business data at all times, even in the event of an outage.
Auto-generated event and summary reports, configured to the
agency’s needs, monitor backup completions and track failure
patterns. With better insight into service usage and historical
trends, the agency has been able to lower its risk. Plus, the
solution’s scalable managed protection and pay-as-you-go
pricing have enabled the agency to control storage costs while
better managing its regulatory compliance requirements. IBM
has been able to reduce total cost of ownership for clients by as
much as 40 percent while improving service levels.
Why choose cloud-based data protection services?
Cloud-based data protection solutions reduce capital outlay,
limiting the need for hardware expenditures. There is no need
to keep adding disks and drives or to deploy a redundant and
dedicated phyisical infrastructure. Users can easily switch
from a capital expense model to a monthly operating expense
model, often with considerable savings.
Data storage is scalable and elastic in the cloud. As storage
needs increase, a cloud-based backup service can scale
easily to accommodate the difference. The cloud’s systematic
and automatic backups also increase availability and enable
faster recovery when disruptions occur. Data can be restored
instantly regardless of a user’s location or time zone.
Protecting citizens with faster and more
coordinated crisis response
Preventing the impact of disasters was already a significant
concern for Rio de Janeiro when a series of flash floods and
landslides claimed lives and caused widespread infrastructure
damage in 2010. The torrential summer storms were not
uncommon, but their effects could have been diminished if
Rio had a single, central location capable of monitoring the
unfolding disasters and overseeing the response. With the 2014
World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics on the horizon, it also
raised serious questions about Rio’s emergency preparedness
and pointed to the dire need for better communication
between the people and systems that served the city.
If Rio’s meteorologists, engineers, field operations and crisis
response personnel had worked together, would citizens have
been better prepared for the disaster? If the operational silos
that separated these organizations were eliminated and their
systems were able to share information in real time, would it
have been possible to proactively determine where flooding
and landslides were most likely to occur, where shelters
and hospital beds would most likely be needed, and which
evacuation routes would be the safest? If such communications
were possible, would Rio’s response have been swifter and
more effective?
Such questions prompted Rio’s city leaders to collaborate
with IBM on the development of a solution to integrate the
city’s core operations to enable real-time communications
and a more proactive approach to crisis management. Rio’s
IBM Global Technology Services
intelligent operations center was up and running 16 weeks
later, and in less than one year, the center was integrating
information and processes from over 20 different city
agencies—municipal and state departments as well as private
utility and transportation companies. This provided officials
with a holistic view of city operations at any point in time,
allowing them to handle emergencies with all hands on deck.
Rio intelligent operations center 2
Today representatives from each agency actually sit side by
side in the operations center and look at live feeds of city
streets and facilities. They are collaborating to assess and
respond to threats, but also to manage the flow of traffic and
public transportation systems, and monitor the efficiency
of power and water supplies. They have the ability to work
together to mobilize response teams, prepare shelters and
deploy needed equipment and supplies, as situations warrant.
They are actively sharing information and making group
decisions dynamically.
13
The operations center relies on a system that uses situational
awareness and predictive analytics to sense and coordinate
response to emergencies. The system’s high-resolution weather
forecasting capability, for example, uses a global weather model
and algorithms to predict heavy rains. The system pulls data
from Rio’s river basin, topographic surveys, historical rainfall
logs and radar feeds, helping operators calculate the effects on
traffic, power and other city services. When urgent situations
are detected, like changes in the flood forecast, an automated
alert system notifies city officials and emergency personnel
via email and instant messaging. Working alongside Rio’s
own radar and the satellite from Aeronautics, the system
allows more time for Rio’s officials to prepare for storms
and prevent disaster.
Operators are able to monitor dozens of real-time data
feeds, which provide them with the insights to anticipate
looming problems and help city leaders put defenses in place
to lessen their impact. Not only is the city better able to
handle emergencies, city leaders can use the same tools to
prepare Rio for major events like public concerts, parades and
sporting events. In addition, first responders are using the
wealth of information collected to tweak their system settings
and operational procedures to speed response and better
coordinate their efforts on citizens’ behalf.
When urgent situations are detected, like
changes in the flood forecast, an automated
alert system notifies city officials and
emergency personnel via email and instant
messaging.
14
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
In January 2012, Rio’s ability to respond was tested when three
downtown office buildings collapsed. Almost immediately, the
operations center notified fire and civil defense departments
and contacted gas and electric companies to shut down service
around the scene. Rapid notifications also went out to close the
subway underneath the site, block streets, dispatch ambulances,
alert local hospitals and send in heavy equipment to remove
the rubble.
collapsed, citizens were alerted via Twitter, Facebook and
other social media. On any given day, the operations center
issues notifications about traffic accidents, street closings
and any other events that are likely to impact citizens’ daily
routine. This empowers citizens to make choices that minimize
personal inconvenience but also improve the overall flow of
city operations. The result is a city that is more attractive to
residents, tourists and business investors alike.
Taking the steps to smarter public safety
Why establish an intelligent operations center?
Most agencies capture enormous amounts of data. Intelligent
operations centers (IOC) provide the means to share
that information across organizational and jurisdictional
boundaries.
Though IOCs serve as central coordination points for
information, they need not be in one physical location. The
important thing is that they provide access for all city domains,
from first responders to transportation, building and energy
management, health and education.
Cities can deploy a dedicated IOC at a designated facility or
leverage a shared IOC at an IBM data center or on the cloud.
Over and above the public safety benefit, the system provides
Rio’s citizens with access to information that improves
the way they live and work. The same weather and traffic
information used by city administrators is shared with citizens
on mobile devices and social networks. When the buildings
Cities are increasingly looking for ways to anticipate, prevent
and respond to threats. But developing a cost-effective
roadmap for smarter public safety—one that can assimilate
massive quantities of information and provide decision makers
with a comprehensive, real-time view of city operations—can
extend beyond a city’s own capabilities.
IBM has extensive experience helping city, state and national
agencies leverage technology to protect citizens. Our
technologies and services are enabling them to integrate
and automate their security operations, transform stores of
collected information into intelligence, protect against cyber
threats, and provide the advanced analytics to streamline
disaster preparation and response. It is the foundation of
smarter public safety and the basis of our service offerings.
Applying the best practices identified from working with
municipal IT departments and decision makers, we have
developed a suite of services and technologies that can be
customized to align with each city’s unique budgetary and
functional requirements. We offer an array of resources to help
cities and agencies address their public safety needs.
IBM Global Technology Services
One place to begin is our Smarter Public Safety portal to learn
more about our physical security solutions, connect with our
experts and download additional case studies. Talk to your
IBM representative about how we can perform an assessment
of your physical security environment to better understand
your current controls and processes, and develop a strategy for
improving them.
Our Smarter Security and Resilience portal explains how it’s
possible to change your security approach from “experience
and react” to “anticipate and adjust.” Our Business Continuity
Index tool can provide you with an accurate picture of your
stance on risk and resilience, along with recommendations
for improvement. And our complimentary Security Health
Scan analyzes your network to determine vulnerabilities and
provides recommendations on how to remediate threats. These
are just a few of the tools that provide insights you can leverage
on your path to smarter public safety.
Our technology professionals will help assess your
environment and customize and implement a smarter public
safety strategy capable of delivering tangible value, including
cost-effective service delivery, reduced complexity and higher
availability. Our disciplined approach, based on decades of IT
service experience, is designed to deliver measured business
outcomes and exceptional value for our clients. Today, it is
enabling IBM to help cities of every size and geography to
better meet the safety and security needs of their citizens.
And we can do the same for your city.
15
Conclusion
Every day, cities around the world face an increasing barrage
of threats from a widening array of unpredictable sources.
As enablers of progress and development, city leaders will
continue to take center stage in the decision to implement
smarter public safety. By focusing on public safety initiatives
that take advantage of new technologies, analytics-driven
intelligence and automation, cities can overcome the
challenges that impede their ability to predict threats and take
preventive actions today. City leaders who can integrate siloed
systems and fragmented city operations, share information
across state and municipal departments, and deliver a
coordinated, real-time response to emergencies are not only
better prepared to address the expanding scope and impact
of threats, they strengthen their ability to govern effectively.
They are not only better able to assure citizens’ safety, they
are better equipped to build a safe environment for growth
and commerce.
However, rapid payback will be critical for public safety
initiatives, especially with limited funding available for such
improvements. With cloud’s low cost of entry and potential
to significantly reduce public safety and security expenses, it
holds considerable promise for today’s budget-constrained
cities. City leaders who can use this and other IT solutions
to demonstrate results quickly will make the greatest gains
financially and operationally.
Armed with the advanced tools and processes to deliver
meaningful intelligence and enable seamless collaboration
among public agencies and first responders, cities can begin
to proactively address threats and speed rescue and response.
They take a major step forward in improving citizens’ safety
and providing the quality of life needed to drive business
development and economic growth.
16
Becoming a smarter city: Six public safety projects that deliver quick results
For more information
To learn more about how IBM is helping cities implement
smarter public safety, please contact your IBM representative
or IBM Business Partner, or visit
ibm.com/smartercities
© COPYRIGHT IBM CORPORATION 2012
IBM Global Services
Route 100
Somers, NY 10589
U.S.A.
Produced in the United States of America
November 2012
IBM, the IBM logo and ibm.com are trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both.
If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first
occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (® or TM), these
symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by
IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may
also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. Other
product, company or service names may be trademarks or service marks
of others. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web at
“Copyright and trademark information” at
ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml
This document is current as of the initial date of publication and may be
changed by IBM at any time.
Not all offerings are available in every country in which IBM operates.
The performance data discussed herein is presented as derived under
specific operating conditions. Actual results may vary. It is the user’s
responsibility to evaluate and verify the operation of any other products
or programs with IBM products and programs.
THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED
“AS IS” WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF NONINFRINGEMENT. IBM products are warranted according to the terms
and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided.
Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to
change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives
only. Actual available storage capacity may be reported for both
uncompressed and compressed data and will vary and may be less
than stated.
“Livable Cities: Challenges and opportunities for policymakers”
Economist Intelligence Unit, November 2010.
1
2
Photo courtesy of Raphael Lima
Please Recycle
GPW12345-USEN-00