Convergence of Physical and Cyber Security
Most organizations today treat physical and cyber security as separate functions. By doing so, not only do they weaken their entire security posture, but they miss on out on the financial benefits and ROI opportunities when integrating them as one. Too many organizations isolate these two security domains with different bodies of personnel overseeing and managing each of two security systems separately, while at the same time, these disparate teams lack in the communication with one another. This is unfortunate when in fact they both rely on each other for their own protection. Cyber Security relies heavily on physical security. The odds of an attacker compromising a host or network while having physical access to a computer is highly probable. The lack of convergence between Physical and Cybersecurity both physical intruders, while at the same time identifying an advanced persistent threat who has gained access to your internal network including your video surveillance and access control system which are now running on IP networks.
With the emergence of IoT (Internet of Things) today, everything has become a network device. Cameras and card readers are now IP-based and are using network infrastructure for their connectivity. Like IT networks, PC hosts, and servers, these new IoT “network devices” also require the same Cyber Defense protection mechanisms, controls, and security policies. This growing physical security/IoT domain has also added a new threat landscape. We at Iron Aegis believe that both security domains should be working together to achieve the same goal and by unifying physical and cyber security, these security domains provide significant benefits as outlined below:
- Stronger Security posture due to a holistic approach to Cyber, Physical and Cloud Security management.
- Detection of physical and electronic access of insider threats and malicious actors
- Enhances the Cyber Security DiD (Defense in Depth) strategy and makes it more effective
- Scalable and streamlined physical security management and efficiency by utilizing existing robust current IT infrastructure
- Improved security compliance
