This week’s blog features an article from our friends at Security Boulevard about the most important security trends in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic…
A cyber attack occurs every 39 seconds. The post-pandemic security climate places cybersecurity as a top priority for businesses.
Since many businesses have adopted cloud-based and IoT (internet of things) technologies to facilitate remote working during the pandemic, it has become necessary to consider physical security as inherently linked to digital security.
To learn about the physical and digital security convergence trends helping businesses to create a future proof security strategy, keep reading. This guide will cover the emerging trends that help protect physical and digital assets with an overarching all-inclusive security strategy.
Why Converge Physical and Digital Security
It is becoming increasingly difficult to consider physical and digital security as separate concepts. With the increased adoption of IoT and cloud-based technologies comes the need for physical and digital security to be combined to secure these technologies. Since the pandemic began, many businesses have been using these technologies with cloud migration.
A converged physical and digital security system unblurs the lines regarding which security elements fall under the jurisdiction of each security team. With a converged physical and digital security system, a business can provide a future-proof security strategy that supports IoT and cloud-based technologies across the company.
Top Physical Security to Protect Digital Assets
Here are some of the main trends business leaders use to create a converged physical and cybersecurity strategy. Consider whether implementing these changes in your security strategy would help improve your response to security breaches.
Using Physical Security to Protect Digital Assets
Physical security is necessary to protect sensitive data stored within the building. Servers are vulnerable to physical security breaches, so using physical security measures to protect the digital assets in your building is essential.
Many business leaders are opting for cloud-based access control technologies to protect the digital assets stored inside a building or facility. Modern access control systems use mobile credentials as access keys to increase convenience for administrators and users. By downloading an app, employees and occupants can gain their access card, rather than having to wait for a physical key, keycard, or code to be created for them. Bluetooth access readers also allow users to enter the building without having to withdraw their mobile devices from their pockets and present them directly in front of the reader. Users of a mobile credential access control system gain the benefits of enhanced security without added inconvenience to their daily operations.
You can establish internal door locks in your building to ensure that only employees and occupants can access the areas necessary for their daily operations. Creating internal permissions within your building is part of a zero-trust cybersecurity policy with physical security. Zero-trust reduces the potential for an internal security breach that could cause the exposure of sensitive data. It does not assume the trustworthiness of all users on the system and instead establishes varying levels of permissions.
Using Cybersecurity to Secure Your Physical Security System
When you implement a cloud-based physical security system, cybersecurity becomes essential to protect the system from interception.
Physical and cloud-based security systems have remote capabilities that allow administrative users to operate door locks remotely, enforce lockdown procedures, and grant permissions to users. If these functions fall into the wrong hands, it can cause a colossal security breach.
The solution? Installing cybersecurity software to protect your physical security system. By installing cybersecurity software to protect your physical security system from interception, you can create an impervious system able to face the issues posed by the modern security climate.
Merging Physical and Digital Security Teams
When a business is taking steps to create a converged physical and digital security system, it follows that you must merge physical and digital security teams.
If the physical security system is subject to a cybersecurity breach, it can be challenging to create a strategy to resolve the threat if both teams are working separately. By merging both teams, you will improve communications, and they will be able to develop strategies for addressing security threats that affect both physical and digital elements of the business.
By merging physical and digital security teams, you will be able to reduce the workload of each team for more effective planning and protocols. By reducing the workload of both teams, you may also create an opportunity to streamline your team and reduce redundancy within both sectors.
Housing both teams separately will not prepare your business for security breaches affecting IoT and cloud-based technologies, but combining them will help you create a future-proof security strategy. Both teams will leverage physical and digital security data to develop a more effective overarching security strategy.
Using Digital Enhancements for Physical Security Features
AI and analytics are digital security elements that you can apply to your physical security installations to improve their overall efficiency.
For instance, without using AI technology, security cameras can only be useful in deterring crime or providing evidence after the fact. However, with AI technology, your security staff will be more likely to use security cameras to actually prevent a crime from occurring.
Your security staff will likely be unable to consistently monitor video camera feed due to their other responsibility, meaning they will not be able to spot a potential security threat before a crime occurs. With AI and analytics applied to your security cameras, alerts will be triggered when a potential security threat is detected, allowing your security staff to respond quickly and potentially prevent a crime from occurring.
By combining physical security technology with digital elements, you can enhance their function and get more from your physical security installations. AI software and analytics can be applied to spot anomalies in other physical security data, such as the data gathered from your access control system.
Summary
The future of security lies in the merging of physical and digital security. Since cyberattacks are becoming increasingly pervasive, and more elements of a business are becoming vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks, there must be a solution. By converging physical and digital security teams and elements in your security infrastructure, your business can adopt cloud-based and IoT technologies without increased vulnerability. Consider these trends, and how adopting them could strengthen your current security strategy.
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As the premier Managed Service Provider (MSP) of the Midwest, it’s our duty to keep businesses like yours protected around the clock with the best physical and digital defenses available. As technology continues to evolve from the onset of the pandemic does your business have an integrated approach to security?
Physical and IT security are no longer separate domains. At Computers Nationwide we specialize in Managed IT and other Managed Services. We can install access controls, commercial surveillance, and manage your SMB’s cybersecurity to make sure you get the best of both worlds.
Curious how your workplace will benefit from both physical and digital security services? We have you covered!
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