Advanced security systems to protect currency plants
Released on: September 3, 2008, 5:01 am
Press Release Author: T.A
Industry: Electronics
Press Release Summary: The Korean national currency plant has implemented a comprehensive solution that includes a sophisticated access control system with fingerprint and iris biometric readers
Press Release Body: Seoul, Korea, September 2, 2008 – DDS, a leading manufacturer of access control and alarm management solutions, announces that its solution has been selected to monitor access control and alarm monitoring of the Komsco national currency plant. Komsco, located in South Korea, mainly prints banknotes and coins for its own market and for other European countries as well.
The two main security concerns of currency plants have to do with storing huge amounts of money before their transfer to central banks, and keeping secret their manufacturing know-how. The risks of robbery, violence and extortion of key employees, and the evolving threat of counterfeiting have made physical security a primary issue for currency manufacturers. Komsco sought a solution to enhance the security and safety of its premises and employees as well as ensuring manufacturing confidentiality.
The access control requirements of such sites are considerable. There are many different types of control points, so that in addition to standard door controls, the system must also control access to more specialized areas, such as highly secured rooms containing currency moulds or trade secrets of banknotes. These requirements made it essential to have an advanced access control system, fingerprint and iris biometric readers, and integration with CCTV system part of the tender issued.
Several international security companies competed for this project, but after evaluating various enterprise solutions, Komsco decided to implement solutions from DDS. The combination of DDS’s TPL controllers with Keico biometric readers, which provide control over ‘who goes where’ and restrict access to non-authorized personnel, was selected by Komsco as the most suitable.
Biometric integration is a standard feature of DDS’s Amadeus 5 software. Template management (enrolment, download) and reader configuration are easily defined directly from Amadeus 5. For better security, an alarm will pop up if an authorized user put another finger (or from the other hand) than defined during the enrolment. DDS\' software was also integrated with the Pelco CCTV system. Komsco now benefits from access control and CCTV – but with only one piece of software to monitor, thus eliminating the need for traditional hardware such as video matrix switches, multiplexers and quads. On the log screen, any event with supporting video footage is displayed with a camera icon. Clicking on the icon brings up automatically the footage in a separate window. Every recorded video is independently saved in Amadeus 5 and can be viewed even in case of DVR failure.
In addition to substantially increasing their level of security, employees appreciate the convenience of never having to worry about keeping a track of a card or key. DDS reports that Komsco is pleased with the results of the new access control system and is confident that the application is effectively controlling the premises.