HID reveals five themes reshaping the security industry
HID, a provider of trusted identity and physical security solutions, has announced its inaugural State of the Security Industry Report, which gathered responses from 2,700 partners, end users, and security and IT personnel across a range of titles and organization sizes representing over 11 industries. It was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2022.
"We are grateful for the opportunity to share insights with the security community as part of this year's State of Security Industry Report. Mapping our industry's dynamic trends helps provide a deeper understanding of customer needs and challenges. We are confident that our report will help security teams adapt faster and better capitalize on innovative solutions," says Steve Katanas, regional head of mature markets (ANZ), physical access control solutions, HID.
Below are the five common threads, as revealed in the survey.
End users increasingly demand that suppliers provide footprint transparency regarding their operations, product sourcing and research and development practices, with 87% of respondents stating that sustainability ranks as "important to extremely important." Mirroring this trend, 76% said they have seen the importance of sustainability increasing for their customers. To support this growing demand, security teams leverage the cloud and the Internet of Things, even more, to optimize processes and reduce resources. New products and solutions are also being strategically developed to address sensible energy usage, waste reduction and resource optimization.
Most survey respondents, 81%, stated they are offering a hybrid work model. For example, 67% of respondents say that multi-factor authentication and passwordless authentication are most important to adapting to hybrid and remote work, while 48% point to the importance of mobile and digital IDs. Interestingly, the survey also reveals that almost half of the organizations need more time to implement a comprehensive identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) strategy.
Identification and authentication are commonly completed via mobile devices, including smartphones and wearables. The growing popularity of digital wallets from major players such as Google, Apple and Amazon is a key driver of this trend. And expanded capabilities allow smartphone users, for example, to add keys, IDs and digital documents directly in the wallet app. These include, but are not limited to, driving licenses, verifiable COVID-19 vaccination information, employee badges, student IDs and hotel room keys. According to the HID survey, commercial real estate companies (40%) are outpacing other verticals as large commercial real estate firms are leveraging mobile access as part of their larger tenant experience apps.
Biometric technologies represent a significant break from more conventional means of access control. Using biometrics as an additional authenticating factor (e.g., biometric scans to verify an individual's physical identity) can help organizations eliminate unauthorized access and fraud. The importance of this trend is exemplified in the survey data, which shows that 59% of respondents are currently using, planning to implement, or at least testing biometric technologies soon.
According to the survey, 74% of respondents say they were impacted by supply chain issues in 2022, although 50% are optimistic that conditions will improve in 2023. Most affected are commercial real estate companies, with 78% citing supply chain problems as their primary concern. In addition, more than two-thirds of organizations with fewer than 1,000 employees indicate that supply chain issues highly impacted them in 2022. Still, they are also the most optimistic that these issues will resolve in 2023.
"By better understanding the aforementioned topics, security professionals will be better prepared to adapt faster, deliver exceptional digital plus physical experiences, and capitalize on breakthrough innovations in solutions and services," concludes Katanas.
