Our Technician’s Secret Sauce: Ongoing training, learning from peers and working as a team.
By Neal Bellamy, IT Director at Kenton Brothers
I want to take a moment and talk about our amazing commercial security technicians. Technicians are where the rubber meets the road for Kenton Brothers. They are the ones who solve problems every day and make the systems work to protect people, property, and possessions.
It all starts with training.
Kenton Brothers supports many different technologies and products. Some of our team supports keying, master key systems, safety deposit boxes, safes, and more. Another part of our team supports commercial access control, video surveillance, intrusion detection, and analytics. Some of our people know a little bit about all of it… and some of them know a lot about some of it.
With such a wide breadth and depth related to what they do, training is incredibly important. When a technician starts with Kenton Brothers, we have them do several training classes to get up to speed. It gives newer security technicians an introduction to the way we provide commercial security solutions and the language that we use. Ongoing training gives the more experienced technicians a refresher. After earning their stripes, a career development plan is created to help them learn new or deeper skills to make them even more versatile and capable.
Learning from peers.
Training and classes can get you so far, but learning from your fellow technicians is just as valuable. Seasoned technicians take their skills and turn them into an art. Several on our team have been a part of Kenton Brothers for over a decade. They take great pride in their work and have learned how to hone their craft. Part of being a craftsman is teaching the next person how to be an artist themselves. Thankfully, our technicians love to share their knowledge with newer technicians.
Availability.
I also want to give some appreciation to our team for always being available. Sure, like many service based companies we have an after-hours program. This gives you peace of mind that your company can be secure even after many of us have gone home for the day. But this is more than that. Our technicians pick up the phone when another tech needs help. There are many oddities in the security world and sometimes you need a “phone a friend” to figure out what you’re looking at. I am proud of the fact that our team is great about helping each other out, even when it isn’t easy or required.
The Kenton Brothers technicians are the best team I’ve ever had the privilege to work with. They are some of the best in their industry, with a ton of knowledge and great big hearts.
If you want to be part of a team like that, and are willing to put in the work to become one of the best, give us a shout at careers@kentonbrothers.com. We are always looking for experienced security techs as well as good people who are ready to start a new career in commercial security!
We recently received a Chain of Custody request from one of our banking clients. They had an event that they deemed legally significant and requested our help in documenting what had happened. They needed our help to get the video segments exported properly. They wanted footage from all of the cameras at one of their locations over the past 30 days. (That’s a good amount of video data!)
Chain of Custody is something Kenton Brothers takes extremely seriously for many reasons. One, we want to make sure we are providing our customers with a level of service and reliability they can count on. We also want to make sure law enforcement has what they need to support or refute claims. This is also a great example of how the commercial security systems we sell and support do what they’re supposed to do.
In today’s episode of “Yes, we can do that”, I bring you Radio Towers. It’s not the first time we have placed equipment on towers, but this time I have pictures!
Critical infrastructure protection has become a paramount concern for the US government and private organizations alike. From power plants to transportation hubs, food manufacturing to water and waste facilities… these sites are critical to a properly functioning society. Their importance makes them a prime target for a range of threats, from physical attacks to cyber-attacks. As far as commercial security goes, technology is playing a crucial role, and one such technological marvel is the drone.
The video imagery captured by a UAV is ideally suited for reconnaissance or rapid situation awareness. It has the advantage for security personnel to detect and monitor potential threats from a safe distance. UAVs in perimeter security reduce the requirement for foot patrols by security guards. They provide real time situational awareness with the added perk of recording video for analysis later on.
As in all security, it only takes one weak link to bring the whole castle down. You can have the best moat, the best turrets, and the best drawbridge. But if there was a secret, unguarded passage and the enemy discovered it, it could certainly lead to your demise. In the commercial access control world, the Weigand Protocol is that un-guarded secret passage.
If you look online, you can find a board that can be installed between a reader and control panel that will intercept and log every access card being used. The board is smaller than a poker chip and can be installed behind a reader pretty easily. Once installed, it is powered by the door controller and is completely invisible to the reader and access control system. The attacker can leave it in place for a few days or a few weeks, while it collects every card read. Then, when they are ready, they can retrieve the list of cards from the built-in Wi-Fi interface. If the attacker only needs access to get into that single door, they can even “replay” the card number from the Weigand interface back to the door controller, probably granting access. If they need access to multiple doors, they could use the information to recreate identical cards to the ones you are using.
I need to mention a side note here for 
