ASIS International has published the results of a survey which looks at whether organizations in United States, Europe, and India are converging their protective functions.
The results of the research, conducted by the ASIS Foundation, are available in ‘The State of Security Convergence’ report. Survey responses from more than 1,000 security leaders from around the globe were received and 20 follow-up interviews were conducted. The study analyzes the relationship between physical security, cyber security, and business continuity in modern organizations and provides relevant benchmarks to compare strategies, plans, and operations and determine best practices for creating more effective and cost-efficient security and risk operations.
According to the report, despite years of predictions about the inevitability of security convergence, just 24 percent of respondents have converged their physical and cyber security functions. When business continuity is included, a total of 52 percent have converged two or all of the three functions. Of the 48 percent who have not converged at all, 70 percent have no current plans to converge.
96 percent of organizations that converged two or more functions report positive results from the combination, and 72 percent believe that convergence strengthens overall security. In addition, 44 percent of converged organizations report no negative results from converging. Even in companies that have not converged, 78 percent believe that convergence would strengthen their overall security function.
The study’s executive summary can be read here (PDF).
