Page 42 - Security Today, September 2020

The New Heart of Security Security Convergence and Identity become the foundation of digital transformation while
COVID-19 transforms access governance By Willem Ryan
The physical security industry has before it an incredible opportuni- ty: to lead business digital trans- formation (DX) through security convergence. Make no mistake about it, this is our latest inflection point. The emergence of the cloud and as-a-service platform econ- omy have created a sense of urgency all the way up into the corporate boardroom. DX helps enterprises become increasingly cus- tomer focused and outward facing.
A Multitude of Industries
Organizations from all walks of life across a multitude of industries —banking, financial services, manufacturing, energy and utilities, transportation, life sciences and many more have realized the importance of bringing information from the operational aspects of the company to front of the house.
Security experts now agree that the most important aspects of security start with the identity of the people accessing applica- tions and information related to the enter- prise. Are they authorized? Do their privi- leges extend to transactional data? How long should access be granted? Who else can see the data? Are their connections se- cure from attack? And how can their access be turned off when they leave the organiza- tion? What about loT devices?
At the center of converged security is people, identity and trust. And in these un- precedented times, we need to know exactly where employees were, at what time and who they were with. The changing threat landscape, now with a contagion a constant, requires a new approach relying on health and safety access intelligence—all of which comes from a common identity platform.
Extending a single digital identity that can be authenticated across logical and physical environments at the enterprise has ramifications far beyond physical security. For users, it means unified cyber-physical security, greater productivity and the abil- ity to focus on and leverage high-value tasks
“Security experts now agree that the most important aspects of security start with the identity of the people accessing applications and information related to the enterprise.”
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rather than time-consuming manual pro- cessing traditionally associated with identity access governance.
Instead of separate siloed departments simply coexisting and not interacting, secu- rity convergence brings together technolo- gies from security, HR, IT and Operational Technology (OT), capturing and correlating threats and risk and addressing compliance and policy automatically. It creates a com- mon identity across people and things, which also makes it easier and faster to engage cus- tomers and the workforce, create amazing experiences and offerings and level-up opera- tions. It co-mingles with cyber controls, facil- ities technologies and even behavior analytics and risk profiles to mitigate risk holistically.
Data Says Users Want Convergence
Security convergence and digital trans- formation aren’t some pie-in-the-sky con- cepts anymore. C-Suite and facility execu- tives who have been moving in this direction
now know it’s imperative to embrace it as we respond and recover from COVID-19.
According to The State of Security Convergence in the United States, Europe and India, an ASIS Foundation Conver- gence Report published in fall 2019, some 35 percent of respondents said that con- vergence has smoothed the way to create a shared set of practices and goals across physical security, cybersecurity and busi- ness continuity teams. In 39 percent of cases, convergence has “clearly enhanced communication and cooperation.”
Prior to COVID-19 we also saw the fol- lowing data points from the ASIS study: al- most 80 percent of non-converged organiza- tions acknowledge that convergence would strengthen their overall security function and 40 percent cited the desire to better align security strategy with corporate goals as the main catalyst for convergence. It’s likely those numbers are even higher today. Those who were already converging functions and digitally transforming probably find them-
SECURITY CONVERGENCE
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