As smart buildings with intelligent connectivity quickly become the status quo for workplaces, healthcare facilities, and other public venues, it’s important that the way we consider building security evolve to remain effective against modern threats. Building security vulnerabilities now encompass both physical and digital concerns, and often simultaneously, and security teams should reflect this new norm.
Security professionals are realizing that new forms of building attacks can be used to gain access to valuable intellectual property, personally identifiable information and organizational assets. Silos separating IT security teams and physical building security teams can’t exist in the corporate campus of the future.
Physical Security
The concern at the forefront of a building security team’s mind is typically that of physical intruders. When there are people in a space that shouldn’t be, there can be serious outcomes including theft, vandalism, damage to valuable company property, and physical harm to occupants. One way to mitigate this is by equipping security teams with the tools to visualize devices within a building, and have security systems that can integrate with RF-enabled video surveillance allowing teams to visually identify unauthorized persons, and track their location within the building.
Digital Security
The less known threats are the ones that center around rogue devices, and the harm they’re capable of causing in a corporate campus. Addressing these risks requires complete situational awareness of a facility.
Not knowing how many PCs, laptops, VOIP phones, BYOD devices, tablets, smartphones, fitness trackers and the like are present in a building can make it difficult to gauge how many devices there are in a building that shouldn’t be there. Not unlike a physical intruder, rogue devices and nefarious Wireless Access Points will go unnoticed if one is not aware of how to visualize them in a space.
The same technology that is used for detecting physical intruders can also be able to provide visibility into devices transmitting within a facility, and which frequencies they are operating on. An indoor intelligence platform will not only empower security teams to visualize people moving through a space, but also provide the tools to automate device lockdowns in no-phone zones, or automatically disable features such as smartphone cameras in sensitive parts of an office.
This exposure to new types of security threats can be alarming for organizations as their buildings become smarter. Since these security threats are not as familiar, they can be more stressful for organizational leaders considering IoT technology. Organizations must now work to develop comprehensive, 360-degree, wireless situational awareness of their buildings. It is key that both people and platforms communicate with other security technologies to mitigate the risks they now face as it becomes increasingly apparent that security silos at any level can lead to gaps and vulnerabilities down the road.
To learn how to bridge the physical-digital security divide in your buildings, download our white paper, Securing Smart Workspaces for free today.
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