PSIM Ambulance Chasing in Brussels

Desperate, shady PSIM marketing tactics continue. Last month, $50 million of diamonds were stolen from the Brussels airport. Now, a PSIM marketing manager tries to capitalize on that to sell his products. Unfortunately, their case for PSIM is incredibly weak ignoring obviously more valuable fundamental countermeasures.

The Heist

This was an audacious, lightning quick job, likely fueled by inside information. See this 2 minute video recapping it:

Vendor's Recommendations

NICE's marketing manager's blames 'information overload':

"The truth is that all of the technology investments may not deliver the heightened standards of security if the control rooms into which all of the data feeds are being pumped are suffering from information overload."

The answer is PSIM! Why? He explains:

"[PSIM] shows what is going on in the terminal, the gates, concourses, around the perimeter, the hangers, offices and warehouse buildings, but it also provides the team with step-by-step guidance as to how to respond to every incident in accordance with pre-determined best-practice and in accordance with industry regulations."

That's it. There's no case made how a PSIM would directly deter or defeat a coordinated, lightning quick, machine guy carrying, inside information fueled adversary.

The Reality

It's extremely unlikely that any physical security computer system would have any material effect in stopping the Brussel incident.

To the contrary, there are two clear ways to defeat this:

• Strengthen barriers / fencelines: The existing fences had literally no impact on the attackers. A strengthened perimeter would make it far more difficult, if not infeasible, for vehicles to break inside the airport.
• Stop insider leaks to adversaries: There are many policy and procedural elements that could prevent critical details being leaked to adversaries - like the time of the flight, the position of the airplane, etc. 

Once adversaries have such critical information and are met with near zero physical resistance, it becomes nearly impossible for any computer system to stop a caravan of machine gun intruders in mere minutes.