Security for Railways and Metros - Ansaldo STS

Security for Railways and MetrosSecurity Management SystemRailways and Metros worldwide share a set ofcharacteristics that make them very vulnerable to possibleattacks, from simple vandalism to terrorism. Thosecharacteristics are:• High volume of passengers• Openness and accessibility• Underground environments• Valuable assets distributed in remote sites• Multiple stakeholdersToday, the most critical challenge for world-class railwaysand metros is enhancing their level of security, whilekeeping their attributes of openness, extensiveness,accessibility, and affordability.The concept of Security for Railways and Metros may bedefined as monitoring and protecting the infrastructure(stations, tunnels, rolling stock, bridges, viaducts, depots,yards, etc), and the users against:• Aggressions and antisocial behaviors• Thefts, vandalism and graffitism• Sabotage and terrorism• Unauthorized access to restricted areasSecurity Goals: Protect, Prevent, Preserve• Ensure the security of passengers at stations and onboard trains• Ensure the security of personnel• Protect critical assets• Protect the signaling and traffic control systems (IT andTelecoms)• Safeguard continuous operabilityWhile security can never be absolute, a security systemhas a very effective preventive, reassuring and deterrentfunction: a station will be less subject to possible threatsif it appears as a more secure place.Security Management System is an intelligent softwareapplication allowing for the review, analysis, control,command and follow up of all security installations in onesingle, user-friendly interface.It is the core application of any Railway or Metro Securitysystem made by Ansaldo STS.It is designed as a fully integrated control/commandcenter where relevant events detected by the local/peripheral subsystems are received and managed by theoperators.Ansaldo STS Security ConceptAnsaldo STS follows a holistic approach to security in rail-based transportation which is made up of three main buildingblocks:• Risk Analysis• Security Management System• Design and Integration of monitoring subsystemsRisk AnalysisAn in-depth activity of Risk Analysis of the infrastructure tobe protected (from a station to a complete railway or metroline including depots and/or yards) is necessary in orderto evaluate the possible threats and to plan the mostsuitable measures and actions to reduce the risks. Theconcept of risk is represented by the combination of threemain factors: threats and their expected frequency, systemvulnerability with respect to the threats, and expectedconsequences of the threats.A Risk Assessment, performed after a field inspectionthrough site surveys, is aimed at the identification of thesignificant attack scenarios and their related risk indexes.Risk Management, as a second step, is aimed atevaluating the impact, in terms of risk reduction, of thedifferent protection solutions.These activities may be complemented at a later stagewith full educational training of employees workingdirectly in the system because it is those in touch withthe everyday reality of a transportation infrastructure thatare capable of identifying before anyone else the possiblesigns of an atypical situation.SMS supplies to operators only the information relevantto activated “real” threats, minimizing the risk of falsealarms and therefore optimizing security resources andResponse Time of countermeasures. It also suppliesthe related emergency procedures, as agreed with theclient or as per best market practices, and allows for thevisualization of both the video streams associated with thealarms (automatically selected) and the ones selected bythe operator.At a glance, the main advantages of SMS are:• Shared, hierarchical and multi level architecture• Security management performed• “Rules engines” usedat local level for the integration ofsecurity subsystems• Integration with security subsystems already in place &train control solutions• Animated graphical maps for alarmed sensors /cameras• Intelligent and easy to use operators tools• Event (alarms and user actions) reports• Emergency management with step-by-step operationsmonitoring• Tailored specifically for railways and mass transit2 3