In search of: Security reporting software.

JoeDude · Post by **JoeDude** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:03 am

I have been tasked by my management to come up with a uniform reporting system for all the officers in my section. I talked to the IT guys and they will give me server space for storage and backup of the databse. Now I found this (Void?). It's windows based but s free (as in beer) software. I haven't dug into it yet to look at the rest of the license.

The network I have to work with runs oracle and supports mostly win2k workstations (in particular the 3 out of 2500 stations that will have this software are all 2k machines). ALEIR requires MySQL. So the It guys gave me access to their FC5 box as well. To field, test and develope to make it run smooth in their network. I do not want the IT Guys to have access to the database as it will store the personal details of many people and the details of crimes and incidents on the hospital grounds. If they were to have access, I would have to get them certified as trustees, which would cost the hospital more money, which, they are not willing to spend.

I don't want to reinvent the wheel. I know there's all ready programs like this out there. What I need it to is not all that complex.

Time and dates configurations
assign unique incident/report #'s
Incident info
Types of incidents/crimes
Location information
property information
Personal information
Generate a document that is a blotter (or smmary of events for the day in a standardized format)
Be able to cross reference names, crimes and locations for historical data and statistics reporting
Editable fields for administrator accounts to allow entering standardized data

Any ideas? Suggestions on getting one or building one would be great and most welcome. Particularly any that I can edit the fields in the source to taylor to my specific needs.

Ice9 · Post by **Ice9** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 5:25 am

This is what our IT guys use for inventory purposes.
Not sure that all the functions you need are built-in though, but you can take a look.
I know it works for network and machine administration ...

JoeDude · Post by **JoeDude** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 5:38 am

That looks interesting. I'll deffinately have a look at that.

One thing I forgot to mention. It has to have a GUI that even the most computer illiterate can just click an icon, enter text in a field and then click save. I have some guys who think the cdrom tray is a cup holder....

Edit:
What a great suite. I am afraid that it is a bit to complex for the guys I need to be able to use it though. I do however, have a great plan and use for that application

Other than that I'll have to keep looking. To use that for these guys would require some serious dumbing down and simplification. Not to mention editting the data fields to be more appropriate towards what I need.

Void Main · Post by **Void Main** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 9:59 am

It sounds like you want a very simple PHP+MySQL web app. If you have complete control of the server and a few skills in HTML + PHP (or Perl, or any other language really) then it looks like this should be a pretty easy thing to whip up based on just the requirements you have listed. I would personally be concerned about security on this system because if the type of sensitive data it will be housing. You obviously have to make sure the server is secure, you use SSL, good password schemes, the typical stuff. And what other liabilities will you be susceptible to if you code this up and it the data is exposed because of some coding error you may have made?

Of course these are not technical issues. I'm not sure if there is anything out there as simple as you want designed specifically for what you want but it really looks like simething that wouldn't take long to code up for someone who knew what they were doing. Sorry I don't have a specific answer for you. Also you didn't post a link to what you found so I can see roughly what it does and maybe get a better idea of what you are after.

JoeDude · Post by **JoeDude** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 10:42 am

Danget...I knew I forgot something....

http://www.aleir.com/

Void Main · Post by **Void Main** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 11:14 am

Wow, that's funny. That place is exactly a 6.4 mile drive from where I am sitting right now according to Google Maps. :)

JoeDude · Post by **JoeDude** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 1:31 pm

lol

OK, here we go.

I need to catagorize each event as either a crime or incident. It needs to have a unique number assigned to it, be able to discern report time, start time, end time, and time officer is out at scene, and the location. Each even should be on a drop down menu, with an id number for each event as well. This list needs to be editable by an admin.

People need to be full names, date of birth, address, race, sex and catagorized as subject, complainant, victim, witness, patient, guest, employee (and list thier title), and security officer.

Property needs to be filled in as accurately as possible with what it is (generic name), name brand, serial number (if appropriate), value, date lost/stolen damaged, date recovered, date returned.

There needs to be a summary block where the officer can enter the details of the event.

All of this needs to be rolled up every day and generate an easy to read blotter (document) which has all of this detail on it in an easy flow.

ie:

Code: Select all


GHHR#0001-06                                                     6 Dec 06

Damage

Subject #1:     Doe, John Adams
                M/W/36: 13 Apr 1970
                123 Mockingbird Lane
                Erdington B77 3RL

Victim #1:      Bird, Sek Shi
                F/W/18: 1 Jan 1988
                69 Tart Loop
                Pipe Hayes B74 7MN

Property #1:    Motorola MX3i mobile phone, Serial #123456789, Display             
                crushed, case cracked, scratched and broken. 
                Valued: 250.00

Time/Date:      1830 hrs, 6 Dec 06
Location:       Ground Floor Theatres Recovery Room
                Good Hope Hospital, NHS Trust
                Sutton Coldfield, B75 7RR

Summary:
At 1840 hrs, 6 Dec 06, Bird notified the Security Office of a damage. Investigation by S-4 (Willis) revealed at the above date, time and location, Subject #1 damaged Victim #1's phone by placing it in his mouth and attempting to chew it. Subject #1 was amiable with victim #1 concerning reimbursement of the cost of property #1. Further, Victim #1 declined police assistance. The estimated cost of damage is 250.00. This investigatin is closed.

All of this data has to be recallable from the database to create stats as well. It would be kewl if it could do graphs and the sort as well.

anyway, there is all ready a program that does something similar to this, but it's not free. It's called COPS. Centralized Operations Police Suite. It is now used by all federal police offices, which include Military Police all the way up to the FBI.

Ice9 · Post by **Ice9** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 3:36 pm

Have you looked on freshmeat or sourceforge?

JoeDude · Post by **JoeDude** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 3:20 am

sourceforge yes, freshmeat no. I found some things in sourceforge that could be usefull, but there would be so much editting, I may as well write it...

Maybe that's the answer, it's time to stop being lazy.

JoeDude · Post by **JoeDude** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:04 am

As the website suggests, I think I'll use stunnel to encrypt it. Any advice here?

Void Main · Post by **Void Main** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 4:21 am

stunnel? If it's going to be a web app why wouldn't you just use ssl (https) and require authentication (htaccess etc)?

JoeDude · Post by **JoeDude** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 5:07 pm

OK, I got it tested and it's running. A bit slow, but IT and I are working on it and seeing what we can do to fix that. The next step is to actually migrate it into the network and have it set up and running by the new year!

Void Main · Post by **Void Main** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 6:26 pm

Oh, I thought you were going to write your own. Now I see why you are using stunnel.

JoeDude · Post by **JoeDude** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:03 am

I'll get around to it eventually. This'll do until then. I just have way to many projects on the table right now....Like that printer driver...I got the printer working, but cant figure out sane....I'm getting there though.

Apparently, they have a Fedora box back there for a handfull of apps hospital wide. I am going to be given full access to it and ... mwahahahahaha.... full control! I have never played with mysql in linux, should be fun.

Here's a question:
Would it be better to put the application on everyones computer that will use it, or create shorcuts throught hte network o the server ... nevermind. I just answered my own question.