The Best Ways to Ensure Cybersecurity in Your Physical Space

Cybersecurity Starts at Your Front Door

Let’s take a step back and ask a simple yet important question: was your physical security system designed to be cyber secure?

Many physical security infrastructures were developed and implemented without considering cybersecurity for our IoT driven world. Network and communication protocols for remote control and management had assumed closed, non-public networks. However, these systems evolved to be highly interconnected systems with open, public networks. This increases the risk of cyber threats to physical security. Research shows that the annual cost from cyber crime damage will reach $6 trillion by 2021. Therefore, it will become even harder to ensure that physical security assets work as intended and when needed.

The challenge we now face is making physical security infrastructure management easier and more cost-effective while fulfilling cybersecurity standards. To evaluate the cybersecurity of your platform, your security managers and IT teams need to better understand how your physical security provider builds products, deploys applications, and manages their internal business in a way that keeps your company secure.

 

Best Practices for a Cyber Secure Physical Security Platform

• Building Network Secure Products That Provide Real-Time Alerts

Network devices can be entry points for cyber attacks when they have open inbound ports and allow unauthorized inbound communication. Does your physical security platform have precautions like strong hardware security and secure data transmission with the cloud?

• Deploying and Supporting Applications with Regular and Automatic Updates

Without proper support and active monitoring, you could face security breaches and costly service disruptions (especially for older, on-premise systems). Does your provider deliver 24/7 monitoring and provide redundancy, business continuity and risk management?

• Managing Internal Operations with Your Security In Mind

Providers need to limit physical access to their data center as well as key areas like backup storage and servers to protect your data. Can your provider show evidence of successful third-party audits and vulnerability tests on their software, hardware and internal processes?

Using reliable, convenient, scalable and cyber-hardened technology, that provides a unified security platform that helps you prevent security breaches.

Read this checklist to learn more about best practices for integrating cybersecurity and physical security.