The Top 3 Security Management Trends at ASIS 2014

Held at the sprawling Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, this year’s ASIS International Seminar & Exhibits was a big one for D3: from a 600 sq ft booth we churned out demo after demo of the D3 ONE Enterprise Security Platform—and its fully integrated Incident Reporting, Case Management, I.T. Forensics, Cybersecurity, Dispatch, Guard Tour and PSIM modules.

The system’s eye-catching components—like the Accolades-winning GIA PSIM platform, Investigative Link Analysis and Analytics Dashboard—did their jobs notably, turning passersby into prospects—and keeping our sales and marketing team (and President) very busy throughout.

We call D3 ONE the world’s only all-in-one security management platform because you can use it to report incidents, conduct investigations, dispatch resources, manage a guard force and connect your access control and surveillance assets to a powerful reporting and response engine. With such deep and varied functionality, we attract everyone from CSOs and senior security executives, to malware specialists and contract security managers.

The Top 3 Security Management Trends at ASIS 2014

While these people face challenges unique to their roles, we also learned that several prevailing trends—such as the need for faster trend reporting—in fact transcended industries and job titles, ultimately affecting many people and organizations. With the help of our booth visitors, we zeroed in on these challenges and produced the following list—The Top 3 Security Management Trends at ASIS 2014.

1. Command Center Operators are Concerned With Complexity Issues Related to Software Upgrades, Training and Testing.

Hence their visit to D3. We offer much-needed simplicity—in the form of a full suite of security management software with one sign-in, one database, one dashboard and one software license agreement. Built from the ground up to work together, the system is perfect for command centers: all modules feature the same logic, hot keys and naming conventions. Plus, our growing stable of integrations with video management, access control, travel tracking and mass communication systems further strengthens our ability to reduce cost and complexity and increase the performance of command centers through sheer ease-of-use and management.

Not coincidentally, D3 is increasingly relied upon to streamline operations and to help fully leverage command center investment. If you’re a command center operator, sign up for a demo to learn more.

2. Trend Reporting Needs to be Real-Time, Actionable and Standardized… or what’s the Point?

First off, executives want real-time and actionable information, and managers want the right tools to provide it. Fed up with a rigid toolset and set number of canned reports, many attendees are exporting security data and processing it in Excel, taking up valuable time and corrupting findings in the process. As one attendee said, “We needed to nip the problem in the bud”. But they didn’t have the right tools to act quickly.

Alas, this problem isn’t unique. New D3 customers cite our flexible report-configuration tools as a major difference-maker as they upgrade from inferior systems and practices. Fully configurable by the end user, D3 reports work against any field in the system, and across all of the modules. Even brand-new fields can be reported on in minutes, without “help” (i.e. paid services) from consultants. The system’s native data visualization tools further amplify reporting with executive dashboards, link analyses, list reports, pie charts, drag-and-drop graphs and heat maps.

Second, managers and executives want to know what’s happening, in detail, with their access control events. Through D3’s integration with leading access control systems such as Lenel and C-Cure, users can now report on the number and location of door-forced-open events, attempted entries into a secure area, or how access control events have correlated with incidents such as theft or vandalism.

Third, executives want to see standardized information returned to them by site managers in their weekly and monthly trend reports. A property management executive with a large portfolio visited D3 looking to get “standard” data from every site, in addition to more granular intelligence from sites experiencing serious crimes like construction theft, gang extortion or patron assaults. Previously, no amount of policy directives could help standardize his reports. But after working with D3’s property management team, the executive found he could use the D3 Incident Reporting system to create a detailed form with two sections. A section for all sites to report on “standard” incidents and another that was highly customized on a per-property basis, designed to report on crimes in problem areas, incidents involving banned persons or crimes correlated to guard routes and surveillance coverage. The improved methodology “would save 100+ hours of my own time every year”.

If you can relate to this attendee or if you work in the real estate and property management sector, schedule a demo to learn more about D3. After all, our systems help secure over 1 billion square feet of retail space every single day.

3. Cybersecurity And InfoSec Teams are Strengthening Their Defenses and Shopping for Solutions

The ISC2 Security Congress, co-located with ASIS and sponsored by D3 Security, was buzzing with talks of the latest cyber-attacks and data breaches. Security executives along with their cyber and information security teams are scrambling to strengthen their defenses—and this year’s Congress was a great place to do some shopping.

Accordingly, there was a significant influx of InfoSec, cyber, malware and I.T. forensics professionals at our booth, trying out our new Cybersecurity Incident Management system. This highly specialized application captures data from simulated, on-going or completed cyber incidents such as privacy breaches, phishing, malware infection and distributed denial-of-service attacks. Fully configurable by the end user, the system allows organizations to create complex intelligence-gathering forms and response workflows for known and new cyber threats. Information gathered can trigger workflows and be reported on to prepare for the next attack—or sent to D3’s I.T. Forensics Case Management system for evidence handling and I.T. forensic investigation.

Of course ours was not the only booth to host cybersecurity professionals. Generally speaking, it was fantastic to see such a strong showing from ISC2 and its members wherever you went, from the showfloor and press room, to the hotels and buses and of course the well-attended Member’s Reception (highly recommended!).

It’s easy to see that cybersecurity is and will forever be a driving force at events like ASIS and in the security industry as a whole. After all, the security industry exists for that old mantra—protecting our property and our people. And the fact that a single hacker or rogue employee could bring a large corporation to its knees is a dire economic threat.

As a result, companies will allocate more of their finite resources to cybersecurity projects at, as some may see it, the expense of “traditional” security. But as traditional security systems become nearly all network-based, and integrated, the line between cybersecurity and physical security will blur, eventually eliminating the distinction. Plus, in terms of collecting customer or patient data, the greatest asset of any company—regardless of industry or size—is the trust of its customers. Without it, there’d be nothing left to protect.


So there you have it—The Top 3 Security Management Trends at ASIS 2014. As suppliers of advanced incident reporting and security management software—now to over 200 of the Fortune 500—this list summarizes the trends facing our customers and prospects, as seen through D3-colored glasses.

If you’re interested in our system, you can schedule a one-on-one demo for you and your team

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Alex MacLachlan

Alex is a marketing leader in the cyber security industry. He runs worldwide marketing for D3 Security, which include recruitment campaigns for enterprise and MSSP buyers, public relations, digital marketing, and business planning. On the weekends, you can find Alex fishing deep in the outdoors, rain or shine.