Michael Kolatchev, principal consultant at Rossnova Solutions and Lina Kolesnikova, consultant at Rossnova Solutions, investigate potential threats to critical infrastructure.

While the idea of smart buildings may not have been popular for that long, smart access control has been around for a while – pinpads, keycards, facial recognition etc. and the technology is only getting better.

Tom Kidwell, co-founder, Ecliptic Dynamics and former British Army and UK Government intelligence specialist and internet infrastructure security professional for the public sector looks at cyber threats for 2024.

Professor Harith Alani, director of the Knowledge Management Institute at the Open University looks at how AI can be used for good and bad

The liquid limits on aeroplanes are an ingrained part of travelling nowadays, we all know what we can and can’t take in our hand luggage. But things are starting to change with the introduction of new technology.

In the most recent risk register published by the UK government, when grouped together with cyber attacks on infrastructure, a cyber attack on telecommunications systems was given a 5-25 per cent likelihood rating Telecommunications makes up part of the communications critical national infrastructure sector and includes fixed line communications and mobile communications, as well as internet infrastructure.

Policing minister Chris Philp recently announced at the Conservative Party conference that he wanted police officers to have access to a wider range of databases outside of those on the national database, which only includes people who have already been arrested The announcement could mean police having access to passport photos to use for facial recognition in an attempt to fight crime.

On 19 December 2016, the worst attack ever recorded on a Christmas market took place at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, a very popular venue in the centre of the German capital. Since then, Christmas market and outdoor event operators have been applying advanced physical security measures in order to protect their events from hostile vehicles.

Integrating safety and crime prevention into large-scale project planning is essential, particularly when considering the infrastructure's long-term security and resilience. A practical approach involves local authorities working closely with the police, specifically Designing Out Crime Officers (DOCOs), who play a pivotal role in advising on how to design environments that deter crime and terrorism.

A recent tragic incident in the UK has brought to the forefront the critical importance of safety in the management of security barriers. In this sobering case, a worker lost his life when his van collided with a partially open security barrier, resulting in the barrier spearing through the vehicle's windscreen and causing fatal injuries.