A fractured relationship between a company’s physical and cyber security strategies is a system vulnerability, and business owners need to move quickly to avoid ever-increasing risks. Security convergence is the way forward and must be prioritized by enterprise leaders.
What is security convergence?
Security convergence is consciously going against the grain when it comes to traditional operational management methods. Converging securities is the practice of integrating information and security tech teams within an organization, instead of allocating teams and strategies to work separately. The more companies must depend upon cloud-based technologies and digital data, the more integrated the approach needs to be regarding the analysis and management of risk across the organization.
Optimizing security posturing
The most significant benefit to converging your physical and cyber security strategies is the extent to which it improves your overall security posture, as reported by 72% of enterprises that have implemented it in their organizations.
When security teams are left to run separately, it creates a vulnerable gap in vital information that can be easily exploited. By integrating cyber and physical security departments, companies instantly improve their overall insights and risk visibility, making it easier to predict and address threats before they escalate further and cause real damage. In addition, merging security teams allows for comprehensive and proactive planning and a holistic view of a business’s security strategies.
Improving risk and crisis response
The pandemic woke everyone up to the real and present potential for the need for highly efficient crisis management responses. Never before in our recent history have we felt so unified in our utter lack of preparation for dealing with an unexpected crisis, and this is a lesson we can take with us moving forwards.
Working together and implementing holistic strategies creates the most robust, knowledge-rich response to risk and crisis. Security convergence enables companies to manage security risks, data breaches, targeted cyber attacks, and other risks with the full force of an integrated team for maximum impact. This approach also helps avoid risk oversight in the event that an event overlaps both physical and digital spaces.
Enhanced communication and knowledge sharing
Knowledge is power, and improved communications can only serve to bolster the strength of a company’s security strategy.
Firstly, an integrated approach creates more cohesion between teams and staff members and helps to align them to the same organizational goals.
Secondly, converged security teams tend to receive more priority attention and budgeting consideration, with business owners finding it easier to address security issues or communication breakdowns more effectively. Additionally, a more effective approach to transferring knowledge between teams enables personnel to work within a more efficient and optimized business and security continuity framework.
Unified security strategies
Historically, physical and cybersecurity threats have been managed separately, both from each other and the overall business strategy of an organization. However, with increased physical and data breach risks, business owners must consider security strategies as fundamental as all other business risks. For example, physical and cyber security issues can damage client and stakeholder confidence, resulting in business relationships and affected revenue difficulties.
Integrating data between cyber and physical security tools allows for more enriched data to fuel optimal security automation and efficiencies – which can also lower overall costs.
Increased efficiency and economic improvements
The more cohesively individual teams can communicate, collaborate and confer with one another, the greater the efficiency will be across the board. When companies prioritize security convergence, much time and resources can be saved by no longer having to address breakdowns in communications and failed attempts in coordinating separately functioning teams. Sometimes overlapping roles can also be saved on in the long run, with employment role reassignment making more efficient and therefore economical use of staff skills.
Integrating digital and physical security teams can also create more streamlined technologies, and by converging them, enterprises can potentially save on maintenance and replacement costs. In addition, integrated teams can strategize to further decrease the liabilities and expenses associated with a cyber or physical security breach.
It can be daunting for some organizations to invest heavily in new and improved technologies, especially when considering the implications of rolling out an entirely new system and associated training. Security convergence essentially requires significant restructuring of current operations. While it can be tempting to put off such changes, the costs far outweigh the benefits in the long run. The success of modern business in such a competitive era depends upon optimal operations and integrated strategies for maximum efficiency and resilience.
Final thoughts
Organizations are often conditioned to view cyber and data risks as an IT concern and access control as a physical security issue. However, merging these strategies alongside overall business management helps to ensure that individual security teams can work collaboratively to best mitigate risk. Therefore, business owners must prioritize coordinating physical and cyber security teams to allow optimal protection.
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