Expert Talk: How to Tackle the Security Challenges of Digitizing Access
Digitizing access brings many benefits, but greater knowledge is needed when it comes to making the right long-term decision. As a global leader in access solutions, Assa Abloy and its over sixty thousand employees worldwide work every day towards a safer and more open world. In a new series of videos, experts in various specialisms within Assa Abloy share their expertise on digital access, including the complexities to be overcome and the range of benefits for those who get digital access right.
This new series of Expert Talks aims to better inform decision-makers – including security managers, directors, consultants, and specifiers – about the key topics they need to consider when digitizing access.
“The first talk in our series covers security,” says Thomas Schulz, Director and Head of Marketing DAS at Assa Abloy Opening Solutions EMEIA. “Security may seem obvious, almost a ‘given’ these days. But digitizing access upgrades security in many valuable ways, not all of them as obvious as you might imagine. Our Security talk also maps out some facts and topics that forward-thinking teams should be aware of.”
Mechanical and Digital Must Work Together for Security
One message upon which all Assa Abloy’s security experts agree is the symbiotic relationship between mechanical and digital security. Assa Abloy’s decades of experience in mechanical locking situates it uniquely to ensure that security applies consistently across mechanical and digital access.
Digital does not replace mechanical: its additional layers of security and identity verification benefit the customer by helping to provide a concrete ROI from digitization. Within the access device, mechanical and digital components must work together – the mechanical backbone is as important as the digital technology inside.
The Growing Importance of Cybersecurity for Digital Access
In a world of emerging and evolving security threats, building users need the reassurance of reliable access control to work productively. As security converges, moving beyond mechanical and cyber ‘silos’, the right digital access solution enables building management teams to define exactly who goes where, and when, across all their sites in an easy and intuitive way.
“It is not enough to have robust, reliable and secure access control devices if they do not have the right cyber protection. Having such a mechanical foundation for access control devices is also not sufficient if they lack proper cyber protection,” explains Milivoj Simeonovski, Director and Head of Information and Cyber Security, Assa Abloy Opening Solutions EMEIA. For this reason, cybersecurity compliance will soon be mandatory for any digital product sold within the EU market. Many ‘traditional’ security staff remain uncertain about its relevance: in research for one recent Assa Abloy market report*, 55% of security professionals surveyed did not recognize four important regional laws and directives that are (or soon will be) critical to cyber and mechanical security. “Staying ahead of these regulations and ensuring digital access adopters understand their importance was another key motivation for making this video – and for the series as a whole,” he adds.
This first in the series of Assa Abloy Expert Talks can help security and access management stakeholders face future challenges with greater confidence. Forthcoming Expert Talk videos will cover four more of Assa Abloy’s key topics in digital access: sustainability, reliability, convenience, and innovation.
Watch “Expert Talk: Security”, the first in Assa Abloy’s new series, here.
