The Convergence of Physical and Information Security - Research Paper Example

There before, organizations and enterprises used to protect their assets primarily with the use of physical efforts such as guns and gates. However, this has become an obsolete idea today since people today are now using passwords and effortless systems to protect their assets. ISSA, ISACA, and ASIS are examples of the three main security organizations that endorse security convergence. A few years ago, the three organizations came up with the Enterprise Security Risk Management with the intention of enhancing effortless security.

Using the example of Smart Cards, we see a very good example of the convergence between the buildings (physical), the PCS and the networks (information). Before we go deep into the topic, it would be important we understand the point of convergence between the two concepts as this will help us learn why the discussion is so important today. When we talk about the physical security, we mean the traditional form of protection that focused primarily on the use of effort to protect the assets owned by an organization (Conference Board of Canada, 2011).

During this time, organizations, mainly used guns, electric fences, security fences and guns to guard their territory. Physical security officers will in that case be made up of law enforcement officers. These officers had specific departments who will in return report to risk management offices and departments. The use of such systems and tools was predominant a few decades ago. Today, things have widely changed and people are no longer using effort to protect their assets. This has been defined as information security.

With the use of information security, firms are widely using passwords and software gadgets to protect their assets from unauthorized access and use (Contos, 2007). Staffs under information security have well established technical backgrounds as their intention is to use as a minimum effort as possible in protecting the assets an