Enterprises says physical security made more important since COVID-19

March 30, 2021

Enterprise security leaders say physical security solutions are more important due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2021 Smart Security Trends Report from cloud-based access control company Brivo, more than 500 U.S.-based physical security and facility management professionals between November 2020 to January 2021 were asked about the physical security impacts from COVID-19 as well as the challenges facing organizations as they look to reopen their doors.

In the report, 75% of respondents said the coronavirus pandemic increased the importance of physical security within their organizations. Sixty percent of respondents said they either see a need for immediate cloud-based technology upgrades or are considering the tech in the near term.

When asked to reflect on continued operations at the beginning of the pandemic, close to 30% of respondents said they did not have centralized security solutions in place and struggled during the pandemic to manage day-to-day operations.

Many security leaders also admitted a pain point of leveraging data for physical security — 70% said they have problems with data, ranging from too much, too little, or a lack of understanding how to use it.

In terms of technology 61% of respondents noted that integration was the most important goal for them in 2021 and additionally, 26% said technology for enforcing contact tracing, social distancing and healthy building compliance requirements is critical for pandemic response.

Ransomware and the propulsion of the extortion economy has rapidly eclipsed into a national priority. Recently, we observed the catastrophic impact of a widescale ransomware attack impacting gas pipelines and raising national gas prices overnight.