By Jay Palter | September 19, 2024
In a few short years, ‘convergence’ has gone from just a buzzword to a supposed fad to the new normal way of operating in the security world. This article explores security convergence, what it means for physical and information security professionals, and then offers some best practices for aligning your organization’s security practices into an effective, unified security management program.
What is Security Convergence?
In short, security convergence is the merging of information security practices with physical security practices. When we live and work in a converged physical and digital world it’s all just ‘security.’
No single set-in-stone converged security program exists. What makes sense to converge varies at each individual organization. At one business, it may be as simple as introducing a daily standing meeting between infosec and physical security personnel. At another, it might mean a top-to-bottom infrastructure overhaul to ensure all team members use a unified, or at the very least, compatible set of tools to secure their entire converged environment and organization.
Learn More: Physical Security 101: How to Start Building a World-Class Security Program
Why Convergence Matters Now More Than Ever
As more mobile and wireless technologies have entered the enterprise and consumer markets in the past decades, that divide has disappeared. As we’ve discussed a lot on the RTN blog, we’re now in the midst of an Internet of Things (IoT) revolution that’s making technology, business, and security convergence the new normal.
Both IoT security tools and threats are changing how we conduct our operations. That means while we’re tracking many things today to keep our organizations secure, we can’t lose sight of what’s on the horizon.
Here are four reasons why security professionals need to think about convergence initiatives now for the long term.
1) Blended Threats Require a Blended Response
Now that more businesses run IoT infrastructure, blended attacks can include a combination of physical and network attacks. For example, ‘skimming’ an access control proximity card with wireless hacking tools and then using your employee’s own credentials to access your facility.
Blended threats require a blended security response. In fact, major tech companies like Google have already shifted in this direction. They recently made security headlines by revealing that their 85,000-employee organization had gone more than a year without anyone being ‘phished’—tricked into compromising their IT assets—thanks to a requirement that all employees access their computers with a password and physical security key combination.
Google chose to help secure network-based assets with physical security tools. For other organizations, a blended security response could include secure storage for data-carrying electronic assets, like laptops or mobile devices. It could also include electronic access controls for assets with physical vulnerabilities, like keys to buildings and fleets.
2) An Integrated Security Strategy is Powerful Security
Converging security practices creates a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Even something as simple as unifying an organization’s security systems through a network-based management tool can yield powerful gains over the long run and during individual critical incidents.
For example, instead of managing multiple different electronic and paper regulatory logging processes for each security system, a unified management tool can automate logging and reporting from everything for you.
Central tools can also improve critical response efforts. Authorized personnel might be able to release critical facility and vehicle keys or firearms in one action, accelerating response teams' action.
3) Simplified Threat Responses
Lowering the barriers between physical and network security teams also reduces confusion over jurisdiction. As the rate of blended attacks rises, this will become an increasingly important benefit of converged security.
For example, if a contractor at your facility sneaks a cellphone pic of proprietary data on an employee’s PC screen and attempts to email it to someone over your own WiFi network, is that a physical or network security threat? The correct answer is it’s a security threat. A converged program should be built to address these types of blended threats that an organization will face.
There’s no reason to waste time determining who should lead the investigation when your data and physical security are at stake.
4) It Can Actually Generate a Competitive Business Advantage
Converging security processes should align your security operations with your business goals. When they do, they can amplify how well your organization performs its most important functions.
A very public-facing business like a vacation resort could mean optimizing security to support visitors and customers within their facility, protecting both them and your assets while also building a reputation for safety.
In a tightly secured business like an electric utility, it could mean building blended defenses in depth around the combined physical and digital perimeter of a generating facility. Better security means better uptime and production, which means incrementally better bottom lines over time.
Ready to take the next step in building a world-class security program?
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How Can We Develop a Security Convergence Strategy?
A successful convergence strategy requires a detailed plan that unites all existing systems, teams, and threat response measures while setting new goals to integrate efforts across the board. In their Cybersecurity and Physical Security Convergence Action Guide, the US Federal Cybersecurity, Infrastructure & Security Agency (CISA) recommends applying a three-phase process for your converged security planning:
- 1. Communication: In the initial phase, organizations should review leadership roles and create a dedicated convergence team. This stage focuses on enabling open information sharing between physical and cyber teams and involves senior executives to gain their commitment to the convergence initiative.
- 2. Coordination: Security leaders formalize the convergence team's roles and responsibilities, identify assets susceptible to physical and cyber threats, and conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments and gap analyses.
- 3. Collaboration: With the groundwork in place, the convergence team prioritizes security improvements, develops joint policies to reduce risks, and ensures alignment of strategies across all security disciplines.
What Are Your Goals for Security Convergence?
Establishing clear strategic goals for your convergence initiative is essential to ensure all stakeholders are on board. Which goals make sense for your organization? Some of the most critical for any organization include:
Maintaining real-time, accurate asset inventories is critical for demonstrating OT compliance with industry regulations. Legacy tracking methods, such as just on a spreadsheet, are time-consuming and prone to errors. An asset tracking and monitoring solution offers a centralized and up-to-date repository of all necessary data, including vulnerabilities, maintenance issues, and communication logs.
Learn More:
What is Operational Technology (OT)?
OT asset management platforms provide comprehensive business intelligence by integrating data from various sources such as asset maintenance records, cyber risk assessments, and historical cost data. This unified data set helps organizations prioritize resources, address vulnerabilities, and plan preventive maintenance based on real-time asset criticality and risk assessments. With the right mix of asset visibility, vulnerability management, and risk analytics, organizations can balance productivity, safety, and compliance, ultimately optimizing operational resilience.
Smart asset management systems allow organizations to better identify and evaluate vulnerabilities across their critical assets. These platforms generate valuable data for quantitative risk modeling. They can help you collect basic asset information—like usage patterns, lifecycle, and repair issues—but also contextual data, such as the asset’s function, importance, and potential financial impact of downtime. These insights allow organizations to establish measurable risk management metrics aligned with business impact.
Smart asset management systems validate whether security policies function as intended during routine operations and maintenance. These systems automatically prompt users to perform necessary security checks when they sign out or return assets from the storage system. They can also detect and alert teams to anomalies, such as unauthorized access requests or abnormal signout activity that might indicate fraud.
By converging security teams, organizations can eliminate duplicate efforts and reduce the time spent managing avoidable crises. Additionally, convergence can lower costs by standardizing security tools and processes across departments, creating operational efficiencies.
Five Best Practices for Security Convergence Plus the Most Important Convergence Idea of All
Here are five essential best practices that organizations of all sizes will want to adhere to, in order to effectively implement a security convergence strategy:
1. Develop Consistent Security Policies
Ensure both IT and physical security teams collaborate to create joint policies. These policies should cover integrated security standards across the organization, promoting a unified approach to security management. Consistent communication and security awareness training for all employees should reinforce these policies.
2. Deploy Comprehensive Surveillance Systems
Use access control, video surveillance, and motion sensors in areas where sensitive data, proprietary information, or personally identifiable information (PII) is stored. This ensures that physical access to critical assets is tightly controlled and monitored.
3. Adopt Cybersecurity Best Practices
Both internal teams and external security providers should follow robust cybersecurity practices, including multi-factor authentication (MFA), least-privilege access models, and strong data retention policies. Implementing these practices reduces the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access to digital and physical assets.
4. Maintain Active Monitoring and Threat Detection
Monitor all security systems regularly and conduct vulnerability assessments. By actively monitoring physical and cyber environments, teams can detect and respond to threats more effectively. Periodic testing ensures systems are prepared to handle emerging vulnerabilities.
Learn More: Physical Security Threats: What You Need to Know
5. Leverage Integrated Data
Converged security systems generate valuable data from both physical and IT sources. Integrating this data provides a comprehensive view of security across the organization, enabling teams to identify threats in real time and make more informed security decisions.
Why Information Sharing is the Most Important Best Practice of All
Effective security convergence relies on seamless information sharing between physical and IT teams. The data produced by Internet of Things (IoT) devices and cloud-based solutions provides actionable intelligence that can help security teams anticipate and respond to potential threats.
For example, smart access control systems generate detailed data on who enters and moves within restricted areas. Analyzing this data enables physical security teams to detect unauthorized access, while cybersecurity teams use data from digital attack logs to understand potential hacking attempts. Combining both datasets offers a 360-degree view of the organization’s security posture, enhancing situational awareness and minimizing vulnerabilities.
By sharing this information, converged security teams are better equipped to detect unusual behavior patterns, respond proactively to threats, and protect critical assets from physical and digital attacks.
A converged security program protects your organization’s key assets and helps get them back up and running faster when something goes wrong. When focused in this way, converged security practices can become part of your organization’s competitive advantage.
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