Security and the safety of people, assets, and property are top concerns for any organization. While cybersecurity grabs the headlines, the security of the physical domain is certainly not less important!
This article makes the strategic case for a proactive physical security posture and argues for the challenges that must be overcome to do so effectively. We will discuss how adopting a proactive security strategy and knowing the possible obstacles enhances an organisation’s ability to protect physical assets more efficiently and confidently.
Reactive security is a time-waster! By the time a breach occurs, organizations are compelled to shift their resources from core business activities to effectively respond to the crisis. This usually takes longer to nail down and resolve. That extends to investigation, containing the extent of damage, and system restoration. The extra time spent on such activities often affects business continuity and reduces productivity.
A reactive approach to security often means playing catch-up. By the time the threat has been identified, such as unauthorized facility access, theft, or vandalism, the damage will already have been done. Recovery from such incidents is usually more strenuous and involves not only restoring physical assets but rebuilding the trust of customers and partners as well.
The threat landscape keeps changing with new threats being discovered every day. It becomes quite hard for a reactive strategy to keep up with this rate of change. While strategists and engineers develop a defence to counter one threat, by then new vulnerabilities could have already been exploited. This keeps the business open to new emerging attacks and forces it to remain in a continuous state of defence.
Reactive security operates in a world constrained by visibility. Without proactive monitoring and threat intelligence, situational awareness needed for an organization to know whether a potential threat is emerging is lacking. The lack of visibility holds back organizations from prevention against attacks and incident response.
Proactive security really begins with threat intelligence: that is, the constant collection, analysis, and actioning of information about developing physical security threats and vulnerabilities. Armed with insights in real-time on the latest trends and tactics of would-be intruders, security teams can harden defences and minimize their exposure. For example, some organizations use threat intelligence to monitor and head off suspicious activities around their perimeter before they escalate into more serious incidents.
A proactive mindset lessens the blow in case of a successful breach. An incident response plan, designed and exercised, will allow a business to limit the scope of intrusion, protect key areas, and restore operations to a minimum extent. For example, using a well-rehearsed incident response plan, a manufacturing company will be able to isolate the affected areas, save its valuable assets from further attacks, and recover the operation with the least lost time.
It also enables an organization in the general sense to strengthen its ability for incident response. Security teams can better prioritize mitigation efforts, allocate resources where necessary, and have increased clarity about potential risks and vulnerabilities, thus enabling coordination of response rather than frantic ad-hoc reactions.
Modern business operates in an environment where customers, partners, and stakeholders are acutely aware of the risks associated with physical security breaches. Businesses that have a strong commitment to security can differentiate themselves from the competition and build a reputation for reliability and trust.
Probably one of the most significant challenges to adopting a proactive security posture is overcoming organizational inertia. People have an innate tendency to resist change, particularly if it calls for paradigm shifts in practices and mindsets. As many as 18% of workers say they would quit if there were a drastic change within their organization. Security leaders must be able to make a case to take a more proactive approach but equally motivate and empower their security teams to drive this change.
It follows that successful proactive security must rest on proper identification and prioritization of identified threats based on their impacts and likelihood. This is called "vulnerability prioritization," and it considersa number of factors: asset data, severity, potential exploitation, impact, and threat intelligence. This could really be time-consuming and complex for most organizations with few resources. Without proper assessment and prioritizing, some resources may be misallocated against non-critical vulnerabilities, leaving those that are critical open.
It requires a skilled and well-equipped security team to create a proactive security approach. However, skilled technical professionals are not always available, and consequently, the work burden increases on the workforce.
Integrating security seamlessly into the overarching business culture proves to be formidable. Typically, it has been deemed as a separate entity rather than an essential strategy in and of itself, let alone innate within the organization's fabric. As reported by CIOs, 46% have identified cultural hindrances as the primary obstacle to achieving success. The key to establishing proactive security lies in redefining objectives, specifically shifting from narrow security goals to broader business objectives. For this to happen, it will be required to change rigid attitudes and adapt organizational structures and procedures.
That makes the need for a proactive security posture more critical than ever. It is no longer the time to adopt purely reactive measures; rather, businesses should take steps towards proactive measures that will equip them to anticipate, mitigate the potential risks, and react more effectively to the nature of changing physical security threats. This can be realized through investment in thorough threat intelligence, vulnerability prioritization, skilled professionals, and integrating security into the business culture.
This requires an efficient security system to act like an intelligent, command-and-control-like intelligence hub, designed for in-depth analysis of a number of sensor inputs and execution of critical decisions. Athena specializes in the design of bespoke multi-layered physical security solutions with advanced analytics that can provide actionable alerts and substantially reduce nuisance alarms.
Our team has vast experience in adjusting security systems to suit the threat landscape and needs of each particular organization. We will work with you to develop a range of proactive defence strategies that will provide your business with the best solution to respond to evolving physical security threats.
Contact Athena today to learn how we can help protect your operations, assets, and reputation.