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What is OSDP?

By Rob Kay, PACSmen, May 16, 2019

Caricature of Rob Kay

In this video, Northland Controls’ Director of Professional Services, Rob Kay, explores the basics and the advantages of OSDP.

OSDP is an access control communications standard developed by SIA to improve interoperability and enhance security among access control products. Compared to the widely used Wiegand protocol, OSDP can bring a variety of operational efficiencies and should be considered for all access control systems moving forward Some of the benefits of OSDP include:

  • Higher Security
  • Advanced Functionality
  • Ease of Use
  • More Interoperability

Northland’s EMEA Application Engineering Manager and PACSmith, Elvio Barros, elaborates on the update saying, “At Northland Controls, we are adopting the OSDP standard in all new installations in addition to assisting clients in migrating and adopting OSDP in a controlled, verified, and operationally risk-free manner within the facilities we secure.”

He cautions users that using OSDP version 2 will not automatically adopt encryption as a standard. “To ensure full end-to-end encryption, there are more factors to consider. If you simply use OSDP V2 without using secure channel, you are still transmitting data from the reader to the system controller in a vulnerable, unencrypted state.”

Reach out to our team of industry-leading physical security technologists with your questions or to learn more about how you can implement OSDP for a safer, more secure access control system by emailing info@northlandcontrols.com.