The Criticality of Security Assessment Within Unattended & Remote Monitoring Systems

Any application that runs on a network has the potential to act as a conduit into the entire system and therefore every network application must be designed and implemented in a way to maintain a system’s overall security requirements. As unattended and remote monitoring applications are dependent on overall security to maintain the integrity of the safeguards data, knowing that each element is secure should be a critical step in the design and deployment of the system. This is especially true with systems sharing a network infrastructure with other environments or when a gateway onto the Internet is present. This paper will address the benefits of using security assessments within remote monitoring applications, identify where the potential vulnerabilities lie and the methods used to aid in the detection of these problems. The Next Generation Surveillance System (NGSS) User Requirements Document 0.1 from September 2003 lists several requirements for an Unattended or Remote Monitoring System. This requirements document will be the basis for illustrating potential system vulnerabilities and the methods/uses of penetration testing.