Why is convergence of physical and digital security so important?

With more and more corporate assets now residing outside the traditional enterprise firewall, the notion of perimeter security is rapidly becoming obsolete. But while the convergence of physical and digital security has to some extent already occurred at a technical level, it’s long overdue at the organisational level.

The systems used to manage physical and digital access have been installed and operated in silos, and managed by different teams. However physical security relies on digital controls. For example, when a swipe card is allocated to a user, a database records information on that person and their access permissions. But what would happen if someone cloned that card – and altered the database records? As long as organisations treat their physical and cyber domains as separate, there is little hope of securing either one.

The fundamental connective tissue between both sides is the users. By having a single trusted ID that works across both physical and digital systems, you can effectively secure both.