The Operational And Cyber Security Benefits Of An IT-Centric Access Control Solution

By Scott Sieracki, CEO, Viscount Systems

Ever since security systems and related peripheral devices made the jump to IP, there has been a desire to combine the two functions to derive greater intelligence and value from them. This has driven not just a technology convergence, but also a departmental convergence. The alignment of security and IT departments within an organization is driven by the desire to monitor all network devices due to evolving cyber security threats, and the need to manage access and identity across the enterprise more cohesively.

In today’s enterprise, an organization’s physical access control should adhere to the same standards and deployment models any other IT application would. Unfortunately, this is not the reality that most organizations face due to the fact that some access control systems — the platforms that monitor physical access to facilities — are based on legacy architectures that operate in a standalone nature. Increasingly, however, end users are looking for ways to eliminate these silos as part of a larger effort to build unified systems that operate with common practices. The first step in that process occurs when organizations start to view access control as an extension of identity management.

Because of the growing demand for robust identity management across the enterprise, an increasing number of organizations are looking to provision physical/logical identities of users through a common set of rules and policies. Many organizations in both the public and private sectors have invested millions of dollars into managing and protecting virtual identities because of increasing cyber threats, and now it has become necessary to apply the same rules, policies, and procedures from the virtual world to elevate and transform physical access control. In this article, we take a look at the potential benefits derived from this combined approach.

Streamline Business Efficiency
The cost savings and operational efficiencies that can be achieved through the unification of physical and logical access control are numerous. In an IT-centric access control model, the application software platform looks and responds like any other native IT application, deployed and supported by in-house IT staff. This access control model delivers a myriad of benefits in a wide variety of environments, including government, enterprise, education, and healthcare.

Cyber Secure
The number of high-profile data breaches that have taken place over the past several years has been a source of great concern for security professionals. From retail giant Target to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the number of people whose personal data has been compromised by hackers is astronomical. Given the increasing pace of migration to digital technology, the chances that other networked-based systems might become the next target have become undeniable. The growth of the Internet of Things and the demand for a secure, mobile enterprise have opened doors to streamlined business operations, but with this mobility comes significant risk. Malicious viruses can either infiltrate or disable IP-based devices, or hackers can use unsecured endpoints to gain access to corporate networks.

Compliance
End users need to be asking their integrators about the types of compliance tools that have been used on access control systems to better gauge the cybersecurity safeguards in place in comparison with standards established by industry bodies, such as PCI, NIST, etc. If bad actors are searching out the vulnerabilities in access control, then we can assume malicious hackers are, as well. That is why it is paramount that organizations take steps to harden any networked-based system through rigorously tested access management solutions. 

It is clear that the role of IT in deploying security will only become more involved moving forward. CISOs, CSOs, and IT security managers require solutions that operate on the standards they’re used to seeing in their environments, as well as ones that offer greater efficiencies and cybersecurity safeguards. The days of closed systems and devices are coming to an end, while the dawn of unified identity management solutions is just beginning to break.

Scott Sieracki is CEO of Viscount with responsibility for driving the company’s global strategy, business development, sales, and partner channel. He and his team are responsible for driving revenue growth of Viscount’s IP-centric access control products in both the commercial and federal marketplaces as well as the continued growth of its telephone entry solutions. Prior to joining Viscount, he served as the Vice President of Sales for IDV solutions an enterprise risk visualization company. Prior to that, he served as the Vice President of Sales for Quantum Secure/HID. Earlier in his career, he served as Director of Sales for North America for Software House/Tyco, and as President and co-founder of Open Options.