Converging physical and logical security: A good idea or not?

Debaters argue the pros and cons

Reasons not to merge physical systems (video surveillance, door-access controls, fire alarms, HVAC and lighting controls  and so on) onto an IP-based computer network shared by business:

1. Video surveillance systems, as well as other physical-security systems, should be on a closed network because it's more secure than sharing with business computer networks that are more subject to malware and attacks.

2. Video surveillance streams are bandwidth-intensive and compression degrades picture quality.

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Reasons not to merge physical systems (video surveillance, door-access controls, fire alarms, HVAC and lighting controls  and so on) onto an IP-based computer network shared by business:

1. Video surveillance systems, as well as other physical-security systems, should be on a closed network because it's more secure than sharing with business computer networks that are more subject to malware and attacks.

2. Video surveillance streams are bandwidth-intensive and compression degrades picture quality.

3. It's better practice to keep physical security departments separate from the IT security department to separate responsibilities and allow physical-security managers independence in operations; there may be legal issues, such as how systems such as fire alarms are installed.

4. Closed physical-security systems require full uptime, which could pose problems in IP-based business networks.

5. Even if physical-security systems are IP-enabled, much work needs to be done in protocol development to collect important meta-data the business would find useful.

Reasons to merge physical and logical security:

1. An increasing amount of physical-security systems are IP-enabled, offering a way to merge with existing networks, or at least establish a separate IP network.

2. A converged employee badge for physical access to buildings and access to computers is possible (the federal government is going this route) and sets a course in establishing a common identity-management system.

3. Businesses, especially in retailing environments, can benefit from advanced IP-based video surveillance that allows for integration of findings about shopper traffic, displays and relative effectiveness of sales when combined with business data.

4. Physical-security systems are becoming so technically sophisticated that the IT department should be involved in their installation and management, especially as information gathered from physical-security systems can be merged as risk and threat factors with logical IT security.

5. There may be cost savings in network or identity-management convergence.

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