Convergence of Cyber & Physical security

Ransomware and online attacks can lead to deadly real-world consequences. Cyber harms inflicted by bad people have turned out to be very serious, because it is difficult to identify and they are not visible. Cyber criminals increasingly attack in ways that cause far more hurtful and visible consequences.

Cyber security and physical security are often treated as two separate sectors. You can see these silos in the way many companies are structured: there is often a Chief Security Officer (CSO) and a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), or cyber security is treated as a subset of physical security, with the head of information security reporting to the head of security.

However, with cyber-attacks becoming increasingly common, and costing companies an average of $4.24 million per data breach, it’s important that cybersecurity and physical security merge into one department. Online threats are varied and they don’t discriminate organizations from individuals when looking for a target.

Today, the Cyber threats are part of every boardroom discussion. Cyberattacks can cause electrical blackouts, failure of military equipment, and breaches of national security secrets. They can result in the theft of valuable, sensitive data like medical records. They can disrupt phone and computer networks or paralyze systems, making data unavailable. It’s not an exaggeration to say that cyber threats may affect the functioning of life.

There is a need for the convergence of cybersecurity and traditional physical security. It has never been simple, mostly because the skill sets necessary for each discipline are so different. CISOs tend to come from the IT side of the organization while CSOs are often either from the security side, former law enforcement, or former military. It can be hard to find a leader with both the technical skills and the physical security mindset needed to bring the two together.

It seems this problem is going to further aggravate and everyone needs to safeguard their own infra with proper back-up plan and they have to decide the protocol on how much content is to be made public and how much to keep private.

We are witnessing Cyberwarfare, where certain Governments around the world are involved in cyberattacks, with many national governments acknowledging or suspected of designing and executing attacks against other countries as part of ongoing political, economic and social disputes.