Strengthening Physical and Cyber Security: Virginia Department of Transportation’s Statewide Deployment of Medeco XT

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) maintains thousands of traffic cabinets across the state that house sophisticated electronics critical to controlling traffic signals and communication over their network infrastructure. While VDOT’s cabinets protect electronic controls from environmental elements, nearly all of them were secured using only a standard mechanical lock and common key until recently.

The Challenge
The journey for the Commonwealth of Virginia and the VDOT management team began with a security assessment focused on cyber security, risk compliance, and network resilience. One of the priority tasks was to assess and identify security risks to the state’s transportation network. Findings showed their traffic-related infrastructure was indeed vulnerable to these risks, though a very common situation given the rapid rise in technology over the past few years.

To remediate this condition, state officials created a list of steps they needed to undertake in determining the best overall solution that not only alleviated the situation but fit with their infrastructure, their operations, and the ongoing maintenance and support of the state’s traffic systems.

This list included investigating ways to better control access and improve security while not hindering support and operation of the traffic system. That presented a huge challenge considering the more than 6,000 traffic cabinets, nine districts, five traffic operation centers, field engineers, and various third-party contractors that routinely work on and support the State’s systems.

Next Steps
After a thorough review of industry technology, VDOT management determined that Medeco had the expertise, experience, technology, and industry recognition as a leader in high-security locking systems.

To work through all the challenges, VDOT enlisted the consulting and project management services of DLG Strategic. DLG connected with Medeco and proceeded to lay out VDOT’s plan for a proof of concept and evaluation of the technology.

Weekly update calls between VDOT, DLG, and Medeco were set up to review the technology, production, and deployment plans, learnings from other traffic agencies, and ways to make this project successful for all.

Proof of Concept
With the Medeco XT Intelligent Key system selected as the best solution for the State, VDOT and DLG put together a pilot program as a proof of concept for the real-world field test to confirm the selection. The Medeco XT Intelligent Key system uses keys that are programmed to work with intelligent cylinders. Administrators use web-based software to grant, revoke, and schedule access. The software also generates audit reports. All of the power is in the key, so hard wiring is not required to the cabinet.

The pilot program included 56 Medeco XT traffic cabinet locks and 22 traffic cabinet locks that use a high-security mechanical key. This provided VDOT a means to evaluate whether a lower-cost, high-security mechanical key and lock would satisfy their requirements, or if, indeed, the Intelligent Key and electronic lock would better meet their needs. As the pilot was deployed, it was quickly determined that the control and flexibility of the Intelligent Key system was the best match.

Compliance Review
Before being approved for installation on Virginia’s state network, Medeco XT software underwent stringent compliance review by the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) to assess any risks to Virginia and/or citizen data security.

Medeco XT software is now an ECOS-approved cloud application for a Commonwealth Agency to use. ECOS (Enterprise Cloud Oversight Service) provides oversight functions and management of cloud based services, specifically focused on software as a service (SaaS) and assures compliance and improved security by providing transparency through VITA oversight.

Once approved, the software had to be set up, configured, and programmed to be ready for the locks and keys that it would control. VDOT, DLG, Medeco, and 360 Network Solutions in Atlanta (Medeco’s certified traffic partner) held weekly team calls to work through the challenges. 

Considerable behind the scenes work went into ensuring keys and locks would perform as designed once they were deployed. This effort included a significant amount of preparation and the creation of a comprehensive plan. Ultimately, the plan made the accurate identification, distribution, and testing of the locks across the state a very successful project.

Deployment
With the solution team now finalized, both the production of about 14,000 locks and planning for deployment across the state began in earnest. It’s no easy task to deploy that many locks, but to do so in over 6,000 locations throughout an entire state is daunting. Medeco ramped up production of the XT traffic cabinet locks to ship to VDOT in batches so the department and DLG could put in place a more controlled set-up, identification, and distribution plan.

Outcome
Medeco began shipping locks to VDOT in April 2021, and in less than one year, all of them were successfully installed. VDOT also used the opportunity to deploy intelligent padlocks. Today, the XT Web software is providing control of access to traffic cabinets and analytical reporting from all locks and keyholders.

Dwayne Cook, Division Admin, Transportation Strategy Office at VDOT said, “For this project, nine VDOT districts came together to greatly improve security on more than 6,000 traffic cabinets. As a result of the incredible support and collaboration we received from our partners, we are much better equipped to prevent cyberattacks and enjoy traceability for all individuals who access our traffic assets.”

“This initiative clearly demonstrates that we are prioritizing security across VDOT,” said Kevin Gregg, Chief of Maintenance and Operations at VDOT. “We were pleasantly surprised by how quickly locks could be retrofitted into our existing cabinets. Workers simply popped out the old lock and popped in the XT. It took less than five minutes per lock.”

Guerry Bruner, Solutions Manager for Traffic and Unmanned Infrastructure at ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions, added, “For the past few years, Medeco has been working with municipalities and states across the country to secure traffic cabinets, but to our knowledge, Virginia is the first state that has deployed this level of technology statewide.”

Bruner explained that like VDOT, many state transportation agencies enlist contractors to service their cabinets. So, they either must assign an employee to accompany contractors to open cabinets or they have to give contractors their own mechanical key.

“With a mechanical key in hand, contractors have access to any cabinet at any time.”

Bruner added that administrators don’t know which cabinets were accessed, and they don’t know if that mechanical key was duplicated. “Intelligent locks and keys give administrators total visibility and control over employee and contractor access, via programmable keys and detailed audit reports – and VDOT can take comfort knowing its keys can’t be duplicated or purchased online.”

The Medeco XT system also complies with the NEMA (The National Electrical Manufacturers Association) TS2 standard for traffic control assemblies, which is designed to ensure high network reliability for remote, outdoor traffic enclosures that are subject to wide temperature and humidity ranges.

Learn more about Medeco XT Traffic Cabinet Control Locks to see how simple, robust, and vital a security solution they are for helping people move with ease through a safer, more open world.