Cybersecurity can protect data. How about elevators?

Advanced cybersecurity capabilities are essential to safeguard software, systems, and data in a new era of cloud, the internet of things, and other smart technologies. In the real estate industry, for example, companies are concerned about the potential for hijacked elevators, as well as compromised building management and heating and cooling systems. According to Greg Belanger, vice president of security technologies at CBRE, the world's largest commercial real estate services and investment company, securing the enterprise has grown more complex--security teams must be familiar with controls and hardware on new devices, as well as what version of firmware is installed and what vulnerabilities are present. For example, if a heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system is connected to the internet, he questions, "Is the firmware that's running the HVAC system vulnerable to attack? Could you find a way to traverse that network and come in and attack employees of that company?" Understanding enterprise vulnerabilities are crucial to safeguard physical assets but investing in the right tools can also be a challenge, says Belanger. "Artificial intelligence and machine learning need large sets of data to be effective in delivering the insights," he explains. In the era of cloud-first and industrial internet of things, the perimeter is becoming far more fluid. By applying AI and machine learning to data sets, he says, "You start to see patterns of risk and risky behavior start to emerge." Another priority when securing physical assets is to translate insights into metrics that C-suite leaders can understand, to help boost decision-making. CEOs and members of boards of directors, who are becoming more security savvy, can benefit from aggregated scores for attack surface management. "Everybody wants to know, especially after an attack like Colonial Pipeline, could that happen to us? How secure are we?" says Belanger.