Most security professionals, from risk management to law enforcement to members of the military, have acknowledged the progressive overlap of responsibility between physical and logical security missions. Securing the perimeter, doors and windows without adequately securing the IT network and electronic data can be catastrophic in today’s environment of sophisticated intruders! Unfortunately, many organizations, large and small, government and private, continue to struggle with properly identifying the actual components, elements and tasks associated with physical and logical security. Not properly identifying or understanding the components make it nearly impossible to manage and assign oversight responsibility to the right skilled professional. A single C-level individual – be it a chief, agent in charge, director or equivalent – must bridge the gaps between physical, communications and logical/data security elements, especially as we now enter the new era of analytics deployment. Identifying, acknowledging and assigning system outputs of an investigative nature, will decrease “mission creep” and keep your IT staff focused on securing networks/data and their critical function of supporting operations.

Very few businesses or facilities today operate without locking systems on gates, doors and windows, coupled with security cameras, motion light sensors, etc. Most are using legacy closed circuit television (CCTV) systems that utilize analog cameras. It is not my intention to discredit any security platform that you may currently have in place, especially if it is working for you and your budget. However, it is my intention to assist you in getting the best performance by optimizing your current system and recommending future surveillance systems and technologies. To best frame this intention, somewhat like a movie director, I coined the approach as “Lights, Cameras, Action-Analytics!”