The State of Industry Standards in 2026: Highlights From SIA’s Webinar

On March 3, 2026, the Security Industry Association (SIA) hosted a webinar on the state of industry standards. In this webinar, experts from SIA and fellow industry-related standards development organizations (SDOs) outlined the key priorities for the upcoming year and explored future initiatives aimed at advancing and enhancing security industry standards.

VIDEO: The State of Security Industry Standards in 2026

What’s New and Upcoming in The Intrusion Subcommittee

Boris Stern, chair of the Intrusion Subcommittee, presented updates on the DC-O9 standard for open and interoperable IP alarm transmission. He highlighted that the standard, first published in 2007, ensures backward compatibility and has been widely adopted by leading manufacturers worldwide. The 2026 revision is now live and introduces enhanced bidirectional capabilities and additional use cases to address evolving cybersecurity threats. This revision is also being proposed as an International Electrotechnical Commission standard.

What’s New and Upcoming in the Credential Design Working Group

SIA Credential Design Working Group co-chairs Teresa Wu (of IDEMIA Public Security) and Tiffany Renz (of HID Global) presented updates on the Credential Design Working Group’s publication of a new 72-page best practice guide for corporate ID credentials. The guide covers physical credential aspects, including card structure, printing, security design, usability and biometrics, with recommendations for photo sizes, expiration dates, and security features. The working group plans to continue its work and hosted a session at ISC West that provided an overview of the guide to interested participants.

What’s New and Upcoming for OSDP

SIA OSDP Technical Subcommittee Chair Constantine Tremouliaris (of ASSA ABLOY) and Vice Chair Jon Uren (of Cypress Integration Solutions) presented an update on the SIA Open Supervised Device Protocol (OSDP), highlighting its transformation from an emerging to an established standard. Tremouliaris and Uren emphasized the need to shift focus from adoption to consistent implementation, introducing OSDP Secure Channel 2 with enhanced security features like AES-256GCM. The team, which participated in SIA’s The Interface event at ISC West, discussed the importance of reducing ambiguity and ensuring predictability across devices to strengthen security and interoperability.

ONVIF 2026 Initiatives

Leo Levit, chair of the ONVIF Steering Committee and director of system integration at Axis Communications, presented an overview of ONVIF, including its mission to promote open interfaces for the security industry through standardization and interoperability. He highlighted four key organizational committees focused on specifications, profiles, testing and communication and noted that the ONVIF ecosystem has grown to include around 500 members globally with more than 35,000 conformant products in its database. Levit discussed current focus areas, including standardized camera to cloud connectivity, media authenticity protocols to protect digital video from manipulation and deepfakes and digital audio standardization for the intercom and audio market. He also invited interested parties in the security industry to join ONVIF to help define the standards for cloud, audio as well as future standards in other areas.

The PKOC Standard

As discussed by Jason Ouellette, corporate vice president, innovation and tech partnerships at ELATEC, Public Key Open Credential (PKOC) is a modern, secure credential technology that uses advanced encryption methods to create digital credentials, whether physical cards or smartphones, cannot be cloned or copied. Unlike legacy traditional credentials that can be duplicated using devices like Flipper Zero, PKOC credentials use a unique “private key” that never leaves your card or phone, while readers verify your credential using a corresponding signed “public key” with every transaction. Additionally, PKOC open-standard approach enables organizations to gradually upgrade their security systems without the expensive “rip and replace” scenario typically required when modernizing their credential solution and it eliminates dependence on single vendors or costly subscription services. PKOC has successfully been deployed with full released production products in the field today, demonstrating that organizations can seamlessly transition from older proximity card systems to PKOC over a multi-year period while maintaining support for existing credentials during the migration. The technology offers enhanced security, lower total ownership costs, future-ready flexibility for emerging standards like post-quantum cryptography, and works across various applications including door access, secure printing, elevators and single sign-on systems, making it an attractive solution for organizations seeking to modernize their physical security infrastructure without disrupting daily operations or breaking the budget.

Want even more on these topics? Watch the full webinar here!