As the lines between the physical and digital worlds increasingly blur, companies are eager to remove the boundaries between how these realms are managed, experts say.
The growing use of cyber-physical systems, in which a mechanical function is controlled by software, and the advent of the Internet of Things, a catchall term to describe everyday items connected to the internet, will spur more companies to examine a security model that blends traditional corporate security and cybersecurity, said Katell Thielemann, an analyst at technology research company Gartner Inc.
“We really should have a chief security officer, period, who might have a chief information security officer reporting into him or her, as well as physical security, health, safety and supply chain security,” she said.
Most companies operate separate physical, business continuity and cybersecurity operations, with only 19% combining all three into a single department, according to research published in January by security trade group Asis International.
At computer maker Dell Technologies Inc., Chief Security Officer John Scimone oversees a converged physical and cybersecurity group, which he said was already in place when he arrived at the company in 2017.
“If we’re looking at this from a risk management perspective, and the risks themselves are converged, to operate in a manner that isn’t converged is artificially inhibiting,” he said.
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