HECTOS - Harmonized Evaluation, Certification and Testing Of Security products - D8.2 Elements for roadmap on European certification, accreditation and standardization for physical security products

Nowadays, the European security market is a very fragmented market with specific characteristics. The market size for different physical security products as well as the effort and cost for testing and certification varies significantly. This document presents the HECTOS view on how the European standardization, evaluation, certification and accreditation for physical security products can be taken forward within a holistic harmonized European certification framework.
After investigating specific problems and challenges with regard to harmonization of testing, certification and evaluation, a general certification framework for physical security products was developed and validated throughout the HECTOS research project, including the viewpoints of external stakeholders.
This roadmap shows a possible way to implement the proposed framework for certification and evaluation of physical security products on a long-scale time frame. It is thereby a step by step guidance for both economic forces as well as governmental bodies to set up such framework.
The roadmap looks at the topic of interest from different ‘viewpoints’ or ‘perspectives’; the so-called roadmap layers. The three main perspectives are the strategic perspective (Why is a particular activity to be done?), the functional perspective (What has to be done in a particular activity?) and the resource perspective (How does a particular activity to be performed?).
On the Functional perspective, two types of roadmap elements are considered:
1. Roadmap elements describing generic preparatory actions that need to be done to be able to implement the overall harmonized European physical security product certification framework structure (Enabling Infrastructure Roadmap)
2. Roadmap elements describing actions that need to be taken to implement, apply and/or maintain certification systems and schemes for some specific product and application categories (System Roadmaps)
The enabling infrastructure roadmap comprises a number of roadmap elements from dissemination and awareness building of the proposed concept through its piloting to the expansion to various physical security certification systems.
The system roadmaps describe the highlights of the way ahead towards an implementation into the proposed harmonized European certification framework for biometrics, explosives & weapons detection, radiological and nuclear detection, chemical and biological detection, and locks. Each of these system roadmaps is identifying the key issues that need to be tackled for the specific topic.
The roadmap suggests that a certification system for a single product category is chosen as a pilot, before attempting to implement the framework across more categories. Certification systems for Radiological & Nuclear Detection, Explosives and Weapon Detection for aviation security and the Biometrics products have been evaluated positively as candidates for the pilot based on their complexity and maturity.
It is important to realize that there are several critical steps that need to be taken as described in this document in order to reach the desired goal of a harmonized, de-fragmented European security market. Provided there is a will among stakeholders as well as the political support, this roadmap can build the starting point for the implementation of a harmonized European certification framework