The economic downturn and the growing concern about foreign threats has placed increased pressure on CSOs today to beef up protection of physical, informational and personnel assets in their enterprises. This is a very different security world than a decade ago and one that requires Proactive Security Management (PSM). Such a plan enables CSOs to efficiently plan for worst-case scenarios rather than react to them inefficiently. A thorough understanding of a company’s physical, personal and informational assets helps foster such focused security policies. The desire to reach this level of security has prompted many CSOs to restructure their policies toward a PSM approach.
While no manufacturing occurs at Ernst & Young, Washington, D.C., the company’s Director of Security John Imhoff says the organization has something just as valuable: information. To protect corporate and client information, Imhoff says an access control system is embedded with an enterprise system to ensure authorization. E&Y physical security is coordinated with information security to afford comprehensive protection.