Based on insights from over 3,700 physical security leaders from around the world, the report revealed that almost half (49%) of the organisations surveyed had activated an improved cyber security strategy this year, and more than a third of all respondents (36%) are looking to invest in cyber security-related tools to improve their physical security environment in the next 12 months.

When asked about the challenges faced when managing employee and visitor safety, more than half of the organisations selected cyber security as their main challenge. This was particularly evident for organisations with over 100,000 employees, with 62.3% of them indicating that cyber security was their top challenge, compared to 52.1% for companies with under 100,000 employees.

Of the many capabilities related to cyber security and data protection deployed by physical security teams in the last year, cyber-hardening of physical security hardware and access control management were the most popular, with 40% of respondents implementing new measures targeting those capabilities.

“It’s reassuring to see physical security professionals prioritising their organisation’s cyber security posture,” said Mathieu Chevalier, Principal Security Architect at Genetec. “As the threat landscape continues to evolve, leading with a defence in depth strategy remains the best game plan that an organisation can have. Businesses will need to put in place cyber security best practices and choose technology partners who offer higher levels of automation to stay on top of potential threats. They will also need to scrutinise their entire supply chain and demand continuous verification, rather than just hardening networks and systems.”