As we have done in previous years, the Security magazine team compiled our favorite articles from this year. As we head into 2020, we hope you take a moment to review some of 2019’s top articles about lessons learned, thought leadership, security challenges and good practices.

For the last two decades, the Security Letter has been a benchmark document that puts the security guard industry into perspective. Each year Robert McCrie compiles data from the top security guard firms and produces what is called “the list” detailing the top 20-25 firms in the country. This year, Robert McCrie, Keith Oringer of Security ProAdvisors and Jeff DiDomenico of Trackforce Valiant made the list come to life – a great way for all of us in the business to see what’s new and different from last year to this year.

Physical security is continually evolving. New technologies emerge every year, and devices that have been around for decades — from smoke detectors to IP cameras — become more advanced in order to meet the demands of the new security landscape. But as we take part in this progression and strive to leverage the latest and greatest devices, it’s important to never forget one of the core technologies of the security industry: video.

Just in 2018, there were 500 million personal records stolen. How many records will be stolen by year’s end? According to the RiskBased Data Breach QuickView Report 2019 Q3, at the end of September, there were 5,183 breaches, exposing 7.9 billion records. Compared to the 2018 Q3 report, the total number of breaches was up 33.3 percent and the total number of records exposed more than doubled, up 112 percent.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” These sage words unfortunately describe the dilemma many companies are facing on a daily basis with increasing frequency. Whether because of a lack of resources to commit to cybersecurity or the C-suite’s reluctance to do things differently, companies are suffering from a rash of bad actors seeking to profit from cyberattacks and the loss of data because of negligent handling by insiders.

Both disaster recovery and business continuity are answers to what happens when entropy strikes, things fall apart, and business is interrupted. Resilience is strategy using a set of tools and approaches that make it harder for things to fall apart, and easier and faster to put them back together when they do.

While access cards still play a strong role in the access control market, some companies are moving toward smartphone Bluetooth-enabled technology to give residents frictionless access through secured doors, elevators and turnstiles.

Why are mid-sized organizations increasingly putting their hope in Managed Detection and Response providers who focus on real-time triage and investigation into data breach signals as they happen?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is living up to the hype. There are more than 20 billion end devices already networked through the Internet, with this number increasing more than three times by the year. In the process, end devices are becoming increasingly more intelligent and efficient, fueled by progress being made in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and even 5G, the new mobile phone technology, which creates the required bandwidths for data transfer in the IoT.

When it comes to cloud solutions, there are many questions regarding the migration process. To help with the transition, end users need to have a full understanding of what cloud is and what they would be getting. The security industry is conservative and can be slow to make changes, however it’s not a question of ‘if’ you might transfer to cloud, but ‘when.’