Our Daily Key

I am sitting with my friend, chatting over coffee, casually sipping short espresso, when all of a sudden we start talking about “critical infrastructure“. It is not a typical theme for Sunday morning. Anyway, there is no going back once it is brought up. And there is no other way but to analyse first the name itself. Which infrastructures are actually critical, who defined them as such, how many are there, and who is going to sign them all? And where is the signet? But then we start talking more seriously. What are the means that can protect the critical infrastructure? Do we need all the available ones, from military to technical protection or is it enough just to check every now and then if everything is alright? We all agree that safety is necessary, but I wonder who will determine what kind of protection we actually need. Which is the optimal one and what is the percentage of decreased possibility of “the” threat?

Electronic locking systems

“Regulation on criteria on determining and securing facilities especially important for the defence of the country“, which I shall not analyse here, but only emphasize its point, which is Article 11, Paragraph 2, Subparagraph 2: "The implementation of protection measures, on the basis of risk assessment, liability defined in other legal and subordinate regulations and facility protection plan, which include:

• organizing and functioning of physical protection service
• development, installation and the use of mechanical and electronic security systems of technical protection
• other measures provided in the security plan"

I would like to mostly focus on mechanics and electronics, that is, mechatronics and point out the solutions of today's technology that we have mostly ignored and, I dare say, declined. I shall analyse the role of our "daily key". I do not know anyone who does not possess a key! Do you know someone who doesn’t have a key!? The first key we receive is the one after our parents carry out "security" question analysis in order to check whether we are able to be responsible "key holders" and decide that we are. What a big day for all of us.

I have the key of my “crib”, i.e. the first facility that I am in charge of. What a day! But we are not kids anymore, we work, we lead, manage, determine, decide… But we still have that key in our pocket, we still use it. It is our first security device. But not only have we grown up, the key has “grown up” as well. The key that we once knew is not the same. Not even close to the one we received. Today’s key can give you so much more. It transfers information, decides about the rights and time of entering into premises, registers and keeps your important information, prevents and deters threats. The key from our pocket is not only a key.

How is a key related to “critical infrastructure”? Well, it has a lot in common! Let’s take a town water-supply line as an example. We all agree that it is a critical infrastructure with a primary goal: to provide drinking water for people. Just try to imagine how many entrances the rooms of such a water-supply could there be (I can think of a town with “only” 150,000 inhabitants).  Take into account everything with a shape of a door that needs to be locked with a key. Now that you have come up with a number, and those who are in this industry are certainly pretty close to the exact one, you have reached the number (mine is 170) of safety vulnerable points of the critical infrastructure (by that I do not mean that they are the only ones). Now what? We know the number of doors (i.e. critical points), we know that each door should be locked, but we also know that the keys that lock them are not good enough for the required level of security. However, we are still using the same key because we think it is the best it can offer us. But it is not so. A key can give you a lot more. There is a combination of electronics and fine mechanics. It has internal electronics in the cylinder and internal electronics in the key, and the two of them communicate. It is enough to put the key in the cylinder (we all call it a lock) and you will get the right to unlock the door. Here is how it works.

The cylinder contains electronics with a small motor that according to correct and authorizing information from the key releases the twirl of the cylinder. Electronics located in the cylinder is actually the executive element (the triggering of the motor), it is a database medium on the rights, licenses, identification data of the cylinder etc., and memory in which the data is stored each time the key is put into the cylinder. In its “head”, the key has a battery and database created by its user (manager, director...) who can change it. We have installed an identification number in the key (as in access control), given it a name, duration, time-limits (several time constraints in one day), the rights to open a door, etc.

We have thus produced the key with transfer data function, a key from which you can obtain information at any time, when and which doors it opened. You can block it, cancel it, extend the duration of its rights, delete, and create a new one... And all that with the help of software application. In order to perform in full extent all of the above, the system has its own software application with which we upload and download information. It is useful for the following actions:

• defining the number of users (carriers of the key)
• uploading user data (carrier of the key)
• determining user group
• defining user rights duration
• defining the total duration of the key / limiting the duration of the key with extension condition
• defining time required for the prolongation of the key duration
• naming and marking of cylinders
• determining cylinder groups
• entering data on lost keys
• downloading/removal of audit trail from the cylinder
• downloading/removal of audit trail from the key

The basic principles of the system can be summed up in three actions: cylinder programming, key programming and placing the key into the cylinder. After we have done the necessary actions, we have gained complete control over the usage of doors. We now have access control with just one ordinary, but "smart" key. This story would thus come to an end, but that is not all. In company ABLOY we have decided to go a step further. Not only do we have a “smart” key that opens electronic cylinders, but it is also possible to combine that the electronic key, in addition to electronic cylinders, opens electronic locks, mechanical cylinders and mechanical locks. The objective that the engineers at the factory set up was to develop and apply electronic locking system that is also compatible with mechanical locking system.

Purpose and usage

I would like to emphasize that the usage of electronic locking system is quite diverse, due to high quality of manufacture, excellent functionality and multifunctionality. Electronic locking system is applied in:

• oil industry (refineries, warehouses, transport...)
• energy industry (hydropower, thermal and solar power plants...)
• chemical industry (pharmaceuticals, paints and varnishes, rubber...)
• gas industry (transportation, warehousing…)
• infrastructure facilities (water-supply, sewage, oil pipeline, gas pipeline...)
• maritime industry (platforms, boats, lighthouses, ports...)
• telecommunications industry (central stations, base stations, portable lines...)
• mining industry (mines, transport…)

The purpose of the system and the way it is applied depend solely on your wishes. The system is primarily intended for registering entrances to all rooms that have doors, that is, for all the rooms that we need the records of entry, their time-limited usage, temporary or permanent blocking and all other forms of data necessary for registering the usage of particular space.

And so, word by word, one more coffee is sipped, and we conclude the story of one of the means of securing critical infrastructure.

I hope that readers have found out about some of the technological possibilities available today and how they can help us ensure higher level of security and control in a simple, quick and economically acceptable way.

The story does not end here because the possibilities of the system are countless. However, I shall introduce you to other novelties of electronic locking systems on some other occasion soon to come so that you discover all the possibilities of “our daily key”.

Dejan ?obi?