Page 17 - Security Today, April 2022

Mark Sargent understands the impact of security breaches at both airports and data centers. As the program manager of the contract security program for ACTS at MSP, Sargent is responsible for the management of the security officers who administer access control and screening procedures. He works closely with the Minneapolis Airport Police Department in defining the Key Performance Indica- tors (KPIs) which ACTS must fulfill to comply with Federal Aviation Administra- tion (FAA) and TSA mandates.
Prior to joining MSP, Sargent served in the Navy and oversaw the security op- erations for Minnesota organizations in technology, retail and property manage- ment. Through these roles, Sargent toured many data centers, gaining insight into all aspects of their security, including staff- ing, emergency response, risk mitigation, Security Operations Centers (SOC) and access control.
As ACTS extends its service capabili- ties from airport security into data cen- ters, Sargent said the similarities in these sectors share in safekeeping their facilities and how knowledge from the aviation in- dustry’s extensive history can be applied to the relatively new data center industry in establishing security practices which re- duce the risk of future failures.
Defense in Depth
Sargent said “Defense in Depth” is the primary function of aviation and data center security. Whether at an airport or data center, security must determine how many layers of protection are necessary to prevent breaches and impact to the facil- ity’s operation.
applications, data centers need security to protect their facilities. Insufficient safe- guards leave data centers vulnerable to cy- berattacks and breaches, where intellectu- al property, confidential information, and financial data can be exposed or stolen. These intrusions are costly, both financial- ly and to the data center’s reputation. CPO
Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock.com
Magazine reports that the average cost for a data center breach is $4.24 million.
Both airports and data centers are high-risk and highly coveted targets, where a single security breach can jeopardize an interconnected network and a brief outage can cause chaos – in the clouds, or in the cloud.
“The first layer is
the parking lot, the
perimeter, the fence,”
Sargent said. “If you’re
able to lessen access ac-
tivity to the exterior of
a building, you’re com-
ing back to the first
layer of ‘Defense in Depth’ that gives you an advantage.”
While securing the perimeter might be sufficient for some facilities, others require multiple levels including security officers,
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Mark Sargent