DAMSTROM: Convergence is a natural element of helping business be successful. For years, corporate and information security departments on Wall Street lived in separate divisions at a firm and there was rarely any dialogue between the groups. Yet, one of the primary missions for both of these groups is protection of the firm’s assets. Even if the two departments don’t ultimately merge, there are still many daily opportunities for convergence, so the thing to do is to find common ground, create transparency and start breaking down silos.
My responsibilities are disaster recovery planning, physical security of employees, and external and internal investigations. Initially the common ground was to globalize a variety of systems that the corporate security department was using – for example, the access control system and secondly, the video system. Initially the goal was to put access control system data on the same backbone we send e-mails over. By building this bridge you enable transparency, which is a critical element to achieve convergence.
A lot of corporate security people are former law enforcement. Their skill sets weren’t forged in the world of technology. You’ve got to open yourself to change.