Webinar preview: Smart, secure airports for the modern traveller

With steadily increasing passenger volumes, ensuring airport and passenger security without compromising the travellers’ airport experience is challenging. Modern travellers expect a seamless, paperless and secure travel experience, which traditional approaches to security may not be able to provide. This calls for a new approach that addresses airport security needs holistically and effectively against a motley collection of point solutions and managed services.

Why evolving threats demand new approaches to airport security

Security has always been a top priority for airports worldwide. However, significant transformation in the operational and technology landscape of airports has completely altered their threat landscape. Traditional approaches to airport security cannot counter the physical and cyber threats of today. Nor can they address the growing number of air travellers or their demand for seamless and secure travel.

Airport security clearly needs a new approach. In this webinar, on 20 November 2019, subject matter experts from Unisys will delve into the powerful and effective approaches that are available to address airport security needs.

Why are traditional approaches to airport security not relevant anymore?

Airports have grown in complexity over the years and the divide between physical and digital worlds is fast blurring. In this converged airport ecosystem, there are many more avenues for bad actors to breach airport security.

Consider the case of physical security systems including CCTV cameras, video management software and access cards. Most of these have an IT component or are controlled by IT. One stolen password could be all that it takes for an intruder to gain unauthorised access into restricted zones in the airport building. In the case of passenger security, manual checks and paper-based processes are no match for fake documents and forged identities. Nor can they meet the growing passenger volumes.

Cyber-security is perhaps the most challenging dimension of airport security, given the heterogeneous airport IT landscape. Airport IT systems include diverse endpoints and deployment topologies, deal with data with varying levels of sensitivity and serves users with varying needs. These factors cause significant challenges when it comes to applying consistent security policies across the automated airport environment. In essence, traditional solutions to airport security are increasingly becoming outdated, cumbersome to manage and unable to adequately meet the growing security needs of airports.

What are some of the new security paradigms that will be discussed in this webinar?

In the airport ecosystem of today, a threat could come from anywhere, even within the airport in the form of insider attacks. In such a scenario, a Zero Trust approach works best.

A Zero Trust approach considers all network traffic untrusted, requires all resources to be secured, access to be limited and access control policies to be strictly enforced. Micro segmentation is an approach for implementing a Zero Trust network and is a powerful approach towards cyber-security. Security solutions based on biometrics are also gaining widespread acceptance across industry verticals. However, airports have unique needs that need to be factored in when it comes to implementing a biometric solution in airports. These are some of the approaches and considerations that our experts will discuss in this webinar. The underlying message that cuts across all these approaches however is that in the converged airport ecosystem of today, security cannot be dealt with in silos.

What else can the audience look forward to in this webinar?

Unisys brings to the table a unique combination of expertise in travel and transportation as well as security. Airports worldwide depend on Unisys to help them boost revenue, reduce cost of operations and improve the passenger experience through our suite of offerings for this space. Our emphasis on security is underlined by our tagline “Securing Your Tomorrow” and our credentials in this space are well established in the industry. Our capabilities in both these areas enable us to understand how different approaches to security can be applied to meet the unique needs of airports.

Through this webinar, we will put forward our distinct point of view in the airport security space and substantiate it with real-world insights from our rich portfolio of engagement. Join this webinar for an in-depth understanding of how to address current and evolving airport security needs effectively.