| | DECEMBER 2022ENTERPRISE SECURITY8IN MY OPINIONIN MY OPINIONBy Terrell Brown, EPD, Global Physical Security, GustoSo, there I was, sitting in a conference room with cross-functional internal colleagues and representatives from a potential new external partner when a member of our legal team said to the external lead, "Good question. I'm not sure. I'll need to defer to T to provide you with those answers." I wanted to look around and see who was going to answer until I remembered that T is short for Terrell and that's me.I wasn't supposed to be the one sitting in that room with all eyes on me looking for answers to complex cybersecurity questions. I'd already fielded and answered the physical security questions because I'm the PhySec director and I can answer those questions all day long. But when my direct manager, the Chief Security Officer (CSO), was pulled away by an emergency, I found myself in the hot seat. Had I known being in his seat meant covering a project with numerous internal and external stakeholders, I might have changed my name.The question I fielded was about processes and procedures outside of my day-to-day wheelhouse: Platform Security; Product Security; Infrastructure Security; Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) and Foundation Security. As a leader, we put pressure on ourselves to know all of the answers and to have the solutions to every problem in our back pockets. But, as all eyes were focused on me and our legal partner was looking at me expectantly, I knew I did not quite have a response ready. It was an uncomfortable feeling for someone used to having all the answers when it came to physical security. This is when I remembered what our CSO told me, "I know you got this T, reach out to the CyberSec team if you need anything." Wow did I need them! I took a deep breath and explained that the answers to their questions were complex and that we'd need to bring in the relevant CyberSec leads to provide the subject matter expertise. Everyone nodded so I did a quiet whew of relief. Being in the hot seat reminded me of the importance of convergence and relationship-building. For 13 years, I'd honed a career in PhySec. I realized, for most of that time, I'd stuck to what I'd known. This moment showed me how important it is, as a leader, to seek out help and expertise across the aisle when I need it. And, it encouraged me to learn more and expand my knowledge set, so that I could communicate about CyberSec more fluently with leadership. Turns out, the answer to expanding my knowledge set was pretty easy to arrive at--Convergence!WHAT IS CONVERGENCE? Merriam-Webster defines convergence as; "the act of converging; and especially moving towards union or uniformity." In security, I was introduced to the concept of PhySec-Cybersec convergence by a mentor back in 2009. I see it as bridging the shared lanes that exist between CyberSec and Terrell BrownSECURITY CONVERGENCE: WHAT IT IS AND WHY IT MATTERS
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