Enterprise Security Spending Increases Since Sept. 11

For years, Roy Bordes has been attending corporate security conventions, at which exhibitors push video surveillance, alarm systems or bullet-resistant glass.

But since the terrorist attacks against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, the American Society of Industrial Security’s (ASIS) annual convention “has become a much more serious show,” said Bordes, a regional vice president for the trade group. The ASIS annual convention opens Sept. 25 in San Diego.

Most of the 20,000 expected attendees, who make enterprise security buying decisions, are evaluating new applications to protect their physical and virtual assets. There’s a growing convergence of network, physical and building security functions, Bordes said.

Enterprise spending on converged security projects in the United States and Europe is forecast to reach US$11.2 billion in 2008, from just $1.1 billion in 2005, according to Forrester Research.

Companies are deploying the fingerprint scanner technology that can admit employees into the building and allow them to log onto their computer, said Bordes, president of The Bordes Group, a security consulting firm in Orlando.

Converged network and physical security is getting C-level management attention too, said Michael Corcoran, president of the California University of Protection and Intelligence Management in San Jose, which confers degrees in intelligence management and management of personal protection.

Some graduates become a company’s chief security officer, guarding executives, protecting the building and, increasingly, also the computer network, Corcoran said.

“The CSO could be from the physical-security side or the network-security side. [Companies] want someone who is well-rounded in both areas,” he said.

By Robert Mullins, IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)

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