Security by design: How Barco’s control room infrastructure helps to deal with threats

Control rooms are not islands. They are linked to the IP-network to connect with their many content sources. This means that there are gateways to the outside world, and where cybercriminals see a gateway, they smell an opportunity.

It is the task of the platform designers to outsmart any intruder, and this can only be achieved by a thought-through design that leaves nothing to chance.
This must be done without interrupting the intuitive operation for the users.

They need to securely connect to their sources, from any location, and interact with the content on any video wall or operator desk, without entering 37 passwords.

Security by design
How do you waterproof a house? Do you just build it, and then patch up all locations where it rains in?

Or do you consider rain management from the first drawings onwards?

It’s logical to go for the second option, so why would it be different for control room software? You can only make a system secure if you make it the essential foundation for the software. That’s where the Security by Design principles step in.

“When designing CTRL, we wanted to create a rock-solid control room software and hardware platform, that could be deployed in even the most critical environments,” says Mathieu Dobbeleir, Product Management Director at Barco.

“By using the Security by Design principles, the team made sure that all communication layers between devices are fully secured.

“This also applies to legacy devices, which often pose the biggest hazard. A dedicated in-house product security team ensures CTRL stays at the forefront of any evolutions or changing legislations.

“Updating the system is a matter of minutes, so rolling out a security update is very swift.”

Barco CTRL has a rock-solid control room software and hardware platform

Fully featured to prevent downtime
Making a platform secure also means it is reliable. That is why Barco CTRL takes all possible measures to prevent any possible downtime.

Redundancy options for critical components make sure that even in the unlikely event a hardware device fails, a spare will take over and the system will continue to work seamlessly.

Also, on the software side a lot of measures were taken to keep the system running. For example, all services run in containers on the server. One service malfunctioning does not take down the complete system. The same occurs in the decoders, where one source can never prevent the complete hardware device working.

Coupled with excellent health monitoring, the result is a platform that has the best possible uptime.

Would you like to know more about Barco CTRL in general, or its security features in particular? Then don’t hesitate to contact Barco!

Barco
Tel: +32 56 233211
Email (sales): andrew.dowsett@barco.com
Web: https://www.barco.com/en/products/control-room-software/barco-ctrl