Security Video Sold for $250,000

Posted May 25, 2014

In Blog Postings, Education, Healthcare Security, Hospitality, Places of Worship, Retail Security-Loss Prevention, Transportation, Uncategorized

Most businesses believe that this will never happen at their facility, and many have policies in place that prohibit the sharing of security video without authorization. However, even with the best intentions it can and does happen often and it will continue to happen until business owners put measures in place to limit the access to such video.

Security Video for Sale

With the recent case where a hotel security officer downloaded and sold confidential security video to a celebrity gossip and entertainment news outlet security experts recommend that businesses review their video handling and storage controls to insure that only authorized access is granted to video files.

Security Officers Access to Security Video

In most cases there is no reason for security officers to have access rights to video archives or the ability to download that information to a portable storage device, or upload it to an online destination. In fact, I have never seen a valid reason why a security officer needed this type of access.

The reality is that only management should have the ability to transfer video archives from a server or recording device. In past cases it is often a security officer that violates company policy and takes the video recording. Their intent was to sell the video to a media company, in some cases for as much as $250,000, and in other cases so that they could post the video online for fun.

Even if there was a policy that prohibited releasing the video, management should have insured that it was not possible for a security officer to have that level of access. Security officers should have the ability to view security monitors as part of their job but there is no valid reason why they need access to archived materials.

So what can or should a business owner do?

Set up access rights to video software programs that only allow security or risk management leadership to ability to copy or move video files. Many software programs in use will allow for restricted access levels.
Consult with your risk management or legal department on sharing of video files, including with law enforcement officials.
Test your protocols from time-to-time to insure that the security settings have not been altered.
Determine your loss potential by conducting a security risk assessment that also addresses vulnerabilities.