Why Sutherland needs Sentinel.AI?
With the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Work from Home has become the new normal for many organizations and their employees. Adopting and maintaining a large-scale remote work model comes with a range of security risks, especially for Sutherland which processes large transactions of highly confidential and sensitive data. To maintain the similar level of security offered by a brick and mortar facility to a WAH setting, Sentinel.AI is crucial in winning client confidence to conduct business from employees’ private space.
When you work from our office facilities, there is building security controlled by access cards, workplace security such as restriction to use mobile, surveillance camera, people monitoring people, high levels of PC security et all. This gives our clients a sense of confidence.
When you work from home; we are trying to offset most of the safeguards offered by an office space with a single device webcam. This is the bare minimum we can do to ensure that we can guarantee basic security using a webcam such as only authorized employee is accessing the computer/data, that no one else is shoulder surfing and looking at client data and that employees are not using mobile phones to take pictures of screens et all.
To provide confidence to our clients that Sutherland means business and that we can deliver work from home services in a secure fashion, Sentinel.AI Vision is necessary.
When does the camera work? Is it 24x7?
Sentinel.AI application does not capture continuous video feed. It captures a static photograph at set intervals (once in a minute, or, once in 2-3-5 minutes). Sentinel.AI Vision is linked to your shift schedule, meaning it would stop taking photos as soon as your shift ends. It does not activate on holidays and scheduled offs. Finally, its not 24x7 and merely on your staffed scheduled work hours
I do not have a home office a.k.a private room for work. What do I do?
Contrary to popular belief, a webcam, especially the ones built-into laptops and the ones mounted on desktops have a very little coverage viz. ~60 degrees and focus area of not more than 3 feet. So, the key takeaway here is position the camera is such a way that only you, sitting in front of the computer is in focus.
Once you do that even if the camera is facing the room, a child resting on the bed, playing on the floor, or, a family member outside the webcam coverage zone in the same room will not be photographed.
What happens when someone walks in during work?
The probability of a person’s image being captured will be very low as Sentinel.AI takes only one photo a minute. Even if it so happens that the person walks in exactly at the second before the webcam, Sentinel.AI it will only trigger an anomaly for that specific minute and then again move to normal as the person would have moved away.
My kid just came and gave me a hug. Would Senitel.AI captured it?
Again, the probability is low as Sentinel.AI takes only one photo a minute. Even if it so happens that your kid came into the webcam zone exactly at the minute the photo was taken, YES, the image would have got captured and it will show up as two faces for that specific minute. We totally understand you are working from home and this could happen. No worries here and no action will be taken. Sentinel.AI it will only trigger an anomaly for that specific minute and then again move to normal as a child being in snap for a minute or two is not a huge process deviance – when compared to another adult directly looking at screen and shoulder surfing.
What is shoulder surfing?
Here is what Wikipedia has to say and we agree.
In computer security, shoulder surfing is a type of social engineering technique used to obtain information such as personal identification numbers (PINs), passwords and other confidential data by looking over the victim's shoulder, either from keystrokes on a device or sensitive information being spoken and heard, also known as eavesdropping.
What if some ones at the door and I must move from my desk during work? Will Sentinel.AI flag me for non-compliance?
Follow the same protocol that you follow in office by locking the computer when moving away and leaving the system un-attended. Sentinel.AI would not take photos when the computer is in locked state. So, an anomaly will not be triggered for your un-planned absence for that duration.
Can somebody else use my computer?
Sutherland Information security restricts un-authorized users from using the computer and therefore please follow the same protocol for WAH as well. If an un-authorized user is going to use the computer during shift, then Sentinel.AI would trigger an anomaly for this violation.
Can I use cell phone during work?
Sutherland Information security restricts cellphone usage during shift but if required to authorize VPN then please use it with care and avoid continuous usage to prevent multiple alerts being raised for cellphone usage.
Can I know where is the picture saved and who reviews the pictures if there are anomalies?
Depending on the Sutherland program you belong to the photographs are stored in respective Sutherland authorized secure storage repository. In case of any anomalies these pictures can be reviewed by individuals authorized by the program & client. This could be your manager; Info security representative as decided by the program.
Should I sign a consent form before using Sentinel?
Yes, there is a consent form that needs to be digitally signed by employee at the first instance of logging into the Sentinel. Please read the document completely before digitally signing the same.
Q: Is Sentinel Shield capable of distinguishing between a photo and an actual face? For example, would an employee with a T-shirt that has a face on it be recognized as a non-employee?
Yes, it can distinguish between a photo (placard) and an actual face. We use a technique called ORB 16-point check on a face and that looks at 16 unique points of a face and differentiates between a photo and a real face with 100% accuracy.
Q: Does the laptop camera blink when Sentinel takes pictures?
Yes, there will be a visual indication while an image is being taken.
Q: Will this work as a BYOD solution?
Yes, this will work in BYOD environment. Sentinel is a wrapper on any device which can be installed as an application. The target device can be SGS provided, client provided, or BYOD.
Q: Is VPN required to access all Sutherland Sentinel features?
No. VPN is not required and the solution works on public network. If the platform is installed on - premise, then VPN may be required depending on the infrastructure setup.
Q: Does it require connection to Sutherland network?
No. Connection to Sutherland network (VPN) is not required.
Q: For what duration is the information stored, what is the timeframe to retrieve ageing data?
This is completely configurable and can be set depending on the organizations' requirements.
Q: Who and where is the team that manages the exceptions? How are they interacting with SD or the employees?
There is a monitoring layer which automatically tags users into Red Zone and Green Zone, so the TLs/TMs/ or a central monitoring team can take corrective action.
Q: How much bandwidth would it consume?
It requires very less bandwidth. The approximate size of image captured is 50 KB, so there will be very less stress on the VPN or the supporting network infrastructure.
Q: Do we need to install this on a desktop, or does it need a link to be whitelisted in case we are using client supplied equipments like in Amazon or Google?
Yes. It requires a thick client to be installed for the vision solution.
Q: Does it do any screen recording when the system is locked?
No. Screen recording is not done when the system is locked.
Q: How are we ensuring that the AI is not capturing or storing personal information, since AI hides sensitive information?
This option can be configured by the organization to retain or discard collected data.
Q: What is the unique value of this tool?
Makes WAH smart, secure, manageable and guarantees data security, using proven technology.
Q: How is it different from the other tools that are available in the market?
It has a built - in AI engine, thus facilitating data security as all data is retained within a single system.
Q: If an event is flagged, will the product capture and store audio for analysis as well?
We are not capturing voice at the moment. It is only Photo and active desktop screen.
Q: Are you aware of Government regulations in Europe regarding cameras and/or desk top monitoring tools? If so, do we have a good response on how Sentinel could help our clients overcome that issue?
Yes. there is an EMPLOYEE CONSENT form that Sumitha, our legal head drafted. We are aware Europe has strict regulations. If an employee consents, we can still do it. Think of it like cameras in a store, office, airport, etc. For specific GPDR, we can evaluate.
Q: Will this be deployed for Sutherland WAH users?
Once we complete the pilot program, we will plan for large scale deployment for all employees of SGS.
Q: Is there any Early Warning System (EWS) report, which can share if employee is taking photos from mobile phone?
Yes, an employee with a mobile phone or a camera during operation hours can be flagged and put on critical alert.
Q: We must list this for Gartner ranking, any updates on that?
We have briefing and demoing with Gartner coming up in the coming weeks and will get us listed and submitted.
Q: Would we need individual client approval for deployment?
Client approval maybe required for deployment. Please consult with your account manager if in doubt.
Q: Once deployed, is the consultant required to login to enable or will it run in the background once they login to the system?
Once signed up, the application will run as a background process and employee will not be disturbed.
Q: The tool has some great complimentary features. Is there any feature or plans to utilize this tool to do periodic speed tests - the value being that we can leverage that information to see the best time to schedule our employees?
Thanks for the suggestion we will include this to our product backlog for further analysis. You can always watch this space for updates.
Q: Is there text to speech conversion, to detect when an agent repeats credit cards, social security numbers, or PII information?
Currently this feature is not available, but it is a good - to - have feature and plan to have it in our product backlog.
Q: Who is our SME for more in-depth prospect/client conversations?
Please contact either Sarfraz Amin or Vickram Nathan.
SarfrazAmin.A@SUTHERLANDGLOBAL.COM
Vickram.Nathan@SUTHERLANDGLOBAL.COM
Q: Does it currently work on Chrome box (chrome OS)?
Not at the moment. We support Windows 8.1 and above.
Q: In Sutherland Anywhere, is Video Conferencing available to all workers to facilitate better engagement?
Q: Does this system interfere when we are sharing video on WebEx?
No. It does not.
Q: Can we integrate with GPS systems to track employees’ location? Whether he works from home? Native Town? On the way to office?
We capture IP address at this point and using this data we can determine approximate location. But no GPS, as it will require additional hardware to work on PCs.
Q: Does this, combined with our Sutherland Anywhere solution satisfy PCI compliance requirements that are present in existing client agreements? Will Sentinel alone satisfy or is Sentinel + Anywhere required?
Sentinel complements Sutherland Anywhere. Sutherland Anywhere has components that makes WAH possible. Sentinel makes it secure.
Q: Can location be monitored?
We do capture IP address and an approximate location can be determined.
Q: Is the AI able to look at aggregate user behavior to identify potential problematic/malicious activity? Things that might be categorized as harmless and/or ignored in a vacuum, could, in certain sequences/patterns/durations/etc., be enabling negative intent/neglectfulness/etc.?
The results produced by AI systems can never be 100% accurate based on the current technology capability, that is the reason why we have a human oversight over flagged anomalies detected by the system to take corrective action.
Q: How would Sentinel integrate with a video conferencing solution. In other words, could we utilize the same Webcam and have Sentinel help pave clearance for the Video Conferencing risks?
No. Sentinel does not support integration with video conferencing solution.
Q: It would be a wonderful opportunity to highlight the employees behind the creation of this as you go to market both from a talent brand perspective and a client perspective - is there a person I could speak to about that?
You can reach out to Manikhandan Venugopal who will connect you to the right person.
Q: Is there a protocol in place for government/law enforcement requests?
We will have to work with our legal team to create a framework around data requests made by government agencies.