How the convergence of physical security and cybersecurity will benefit businesses

The physical security industry is rapidly changing, ever evolving, and one that is growing faster than most other sectors of the greater global market. The latest research shows that the forecasted growth rates will be a compound average growth rate (CAGR) of 7.2% and a total market revenue opportunity of $41.27B through 2022.

These economic indicators make the industry a very attractive investment for entrepreneurs and for investment from large corporations from other industries. At ISC West 2018, this was extremely evident as there was a palpable buzz from technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, cloud-based video management systems and cloud-based access control systems.

New market entrants such as Amazon, and a seemingly increased interest and investment from the likes of Intel, IBM, and even Microsoft were present and contributed strongly to the buzz of the industry’s largest tradeshow.The global managed security services market is projected to reach nearly $40.97 Bn, with a CAGR of 16.6% over the next five years

Need for education and enhanced security

With the increased profile of the industry, one can clearly see that the physical security industry is expanding globally to new consumers; bringing with it an increased need to further secure products and services with comprehensive physical and cybersecurity protocols and the need for education.

This convergence of physical security and cybersecurity will create new industry leaders that will emerge to lead a new segment of the combined market through strong investment and leadership.

According to a report published from Allied Market Research (AMR), the global managed security services market is projected to reach nearly $40.97B, with a CAGR of 16.6% over the next five years.

Correlating these two market data points, the forecast for the physical security market is expected to have nearly 18% of the total market opportunity comprised of cloud services at nearly $7B.

Sharing security service best practices

In September 2017 at the Cloud+ Conference in Austin, Texas, the leaders of the Access Control as a service (ACaaS) and Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) markets, converged to share industry trends, observations of customer adoption, best practices in implementation and service, financial models, and several in-depth discussions on securing physical security of cloud implementations through cybersecurity.

The physical security market will have nearly 18% of the total market opportunity comprised of cloud services

These cybersecurity discussions absolutely dominated every discussion with the clear message that as a cloud service provider, manufacturers and integrators must continue to create robust and scalable cybersecurity offerings to protect customer data and facilities.

Interestingly, an analysis of all of the past cyber breaches was presented by keynote speaker Dean Drako of Eagle Eye Networks, who, through a powerful visual diagram, noted that all existing breaches in the physical security industry were entirely on manufacturer provided hardware solutions; VMS physically installed on customer premises, and camera specific vulnerabilities across multiple providers.Network personnel, cybersecurity personnel, firewall experts, and cloud-specific software development staff all need to be added to core physical security engineering expertise

Cloud versus non-cloud services

The insight that one was able to glean from this information and, that of a greater analysis of cybersecurity hacks across all industries, was that manufacturers and providers of cloud services were more secure and reliable by orders of magnitude than non-cloud solutions.

The reason for these phenomena also became glaringly evident; the security protocols of a cloud service provider is central to the business’s value proposition and as such should be addressed across all levels of manufacturing, implementation, and customer utilisation.

Conversely, non-cloud deployed products rely on field implemented cyber strategies from integrators and end users which often expose lack of skills, education and budget to fully secure these physical security products.

Ensuring successful deployment

As a SaaS service provider, the technical personnel makeup results in an expansion of staff and expertise. Network personnel, cybersecurity personnel, firewall experts, and cloud-specific software development staff all need to be added to core physical security engineering expertise to ensure that the product developed can be successfully implemented and deployed.Implementing a process to protect millions of customer’s data records and facilities begins with mapping out a strategy to secure software and hardware.

These new jobs in the physical security industry will astronomically expand as the market continues to grow $6 Bn in a little over 4 years providing new opportunities to existing and new personnel to enter the industry.

As a leader in access control hardware and an ACaaS provider, ISONAS has taken it upon themselves to implement a process to ensure that their customers can easily implement their products and gain great peace of mind in regard to the security of the solutions.

Data security strategies

Implementing a process to protect millions of customer’s data records and facilities begins with mapping out a strategy to secure software and hardware.

This means employing high-level, seasoned cloud deployment experts to create a strategy in our AWS infrastructure and all ancillary supporting technologies to minimise attack surfaces, create complex, proprietary associations in a multi-layered and multi-tiered connection throughout the application and lastly ensuring that all communication to and from customers’ devices are encrypted and secured.

Implementing a process to protect customer’s data records and facilities begins with mapping out a strategy to secure software and hardware

Once implemented ISONAS took it upon themselves to validate the infrastructure and the customers experience by subjecting the environments to 3^rd party penetration tests.

Addressing cyber threats

These tests, taken up quarterly, ensure a customer that the latest in cyber threats are being addressed and that the manufacturer is providing the latest solutions available in the market.Integration implementation personnel should gain greater knowledge in networks and cybersecurity best practices for their solutions

An added benefit is that customers gain the scalable benefits of enterprise corporate cybersecurity protocols at a fraction of the cost of implementing these on their individual premises.

As an industry, however, it is not simply the responsibility of the cloud service provider to ensure that the customers data in video and access control are being protected.

It is also incumbent on the integrator to ensure that the installation and implementation of the products and solutions are deployed in an educated and skill-based manner.

Knowledge of networks and cybersecurity best practices

The products and services utilised must be easy to implement, be clear in their requirements of the end user networks, and simplistic to apply. Nearly all manufacturers of these products are working diligently to ensure that the integrator has all of the tools at their fingertips to ensure a successful implementation.

However, it will remain important that the integration implementation personnel gain a greater knowledge in networks and cybersecurity best practices for their solutions.The products and services utilised must be easy to implement, be clear in their requirements of the end user networks, and simplistic to apply

In most cases, this will mean additional jobs for new higher-level personnel, access to additional services to provide to end users, and an elevation of networking and security expertise within their business.

Expanding the reach of physical security

These new-found skills and expertise will likely bleed into new markets and expand the reach of the traditional physical security market. It truly is an exciting time to be a part of a rapidly expanding market in the physical security space and to watch the industry react to the growing need for cybersecurity within products and services.

In the next four years, there will be new innovations, new investments, and new winners and losers in products and services. It seems clear that those integrators and manufacturers who have begun to create the strategies and products for tomorrow will be well ahead of those who are not actively addressing the need for SaaS products, yet the window to opportunity remains wide open.