BUZZWORD WATCH

A

Access control: The use of various devices to control entry to a facility or area. Common access control devices include proximity cards and readers, locks and biometric identification.

B

Biometrics: An automated process of identifying people based on their unique physical or behavioral characteristics, including fingerprints, voices, signatures, eyes and/or faces.

Bollards: Poles or other structures arranged outside a facility to keep vehicles out. Bollards may be permanent structures or movable.

C

CCTV: Short for Closed Circuit Television, it encompasses cameras and monitoring devices used for video surveillance.

Critical infrastructure: Executive Order 13010, signed by President Clinton in 1996, designates the following areas in which services are so vital that their incapacity or destruction would have a debilitating impact on the defense or economic security of the United States: electrical power; gas and oil production, storage and delivery; telecommunications; banking and finance; water supply systems; transportation; emergency services; and government operations.

G

GOVNET: A proposed government-only Internet system designed to help protect critical information by keeping it in one secure area.

Graphical User Interface (GUI): A program that takes advantage of a computer’s graphics capabilities to make the program easier to use, such as Microsoft Windows. GUIs feature the following basic components: a pointer and pointing device, icons, a desktop, windows and menus.

I

Intrusion detection: Any electronic system that alerts a command center when there is a security breach in an area or facility. A common intrusion detection system is a burglar alarm.

O

Operator Assist (OA): Computer software for use with security screening devices that highlights a potential “threat” object on a display with a bright color.

P

Proximity cards/readers: A form of keyless entry using a card that does not require swiping, insertion or contact with a reader — the card only has to get in the reader’s proximity.

S

Systems integrator: A company specializing in creating security systems that incorporate access control and other equipment.

T

Threat Image Projection (TIP): Computer software that produces a false “threat” object on the display of a screening device and then notes the operator’s response to the “threat.”

Trace Detection System: A scanning system designed to detect explosives, chemical warfare agents or narcotics either on surfaces or in the surrounding air.