Welcome to the seventh annual Security 500 Survey, Benchmark and Trends report, recognizing both our profession’s best security leaders and their outstanding organizations as well as identifying the biggest challenges and targets for where billions of dollars will be invested to manage enterprise risk and improve security.

What are the Top 10 Trends Driving Enterprise Security? Join Mark McCourt, Publisher of Security Magazine, as he delves into the 2012 Security 500 survey! This survey identifies the critical issues leading security executives are focusing on at their organizations.

Attention enterprise security leaders: Biometrics, including face and voice recognition, are not only getting better but better integrated with other security technologies and mobile devices to provide higher security, more convenience or both.

In the decade after 9/11, antiterrorist training and strategies have focused on combating the threat from without – al Qaeda and Muslim extremism, with the bulk of our human and technology resources going into public transportation facilities.

Phillip Riordan, vice president for student life at Lynn University, Boca Raton, Fla., has added a third gatehouse recently to provide access control to his campus. But he knows that the guardhouses are more than modular buildings.

Security integrators play an interesting and integral role in the security industry – they are part salesman, part customer service agent, part repairman, engineer, consultant… the list could continue. So with all of these competing roles, how do you, as a security executive, sort through the options to find a security integrator who will work with you in the long-term, not just plug in the cameras and walk away?

Bart Szafnicki follows the news every day. Mainly, it’s because his colleagues will be racing towards the action to break or report on a story. Szafnicki is Vice President Corporate Security for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.), which has brands and businesses all over the world, including CNN.

How far does one camera feed go – to a dispatcher or monitoring station? What if it could go to every security vehicle in an organization – giving security personnel minute-by-minute updates on what’s happening and where their services are most needed? With wireless mesh, it can, and more.

Jim Frankild sought out technology to improve his situational awareness. Timothy Phelps wanted security video for judge-pleasing evidence. Wes Hill created a unique metropolitan area network. J.B. Van Hollen rolled out a crime alerting system. In Chicago, at the NATO Summit earlier this year, one of the world’s most sophisticated integrated security systems bridged myriad transportation, school, street and even home cameras to safety contain protesters. And Bryant Garrett finally turned in his VCRs for state-of-art technology. Then there is Ken Deck, who had to concentrate on protecting a vulnerable perimeter.