Although modern physical security devices can make a world of difference in keeping organizations safe, it is critically important to make sure that those devices are properly cyber-protected. When that doesn’t happen – an alarmingly common scenario – those devices can actually harm organizations’ security, by leaving physical security devices vulnerable to hackers and cybercriminals.

Device hardening is an important part of the necessary cyber-protection, helping to close cybersecurity gaps so that organizations will have a smaller attack surface. The problem is that manually hardening an organization’s entire fleet of physical security devices is virtually impossible. The amount of work required is too time-consuming and expensive to be feasible for typical organizations. 

That makes automation essential for hardening physical security devices. Only by taking an automated approach can organizations achieve the comprehensive device hardening that they need.

With that in mind, this post will explain why properly hardening physical security devices is both so difficult and so crucial – and why that makes automation such an essential tool for physical security device management.

Device hardening is a must

Many physical security devices have an unnecessarily large and easily accessible attack surface because of how they’re configured. Their settings – which in many cases were never changed from the default settings they came with – often leave them needlessly exposed to serious cyber risks. 

But you can harden your organization’s devices by changing their configuration settings. This often involves requiring a device to communicate only via HTTPS (as opposed to the far riskier HTTP), disabling SSH, and turning off certain discovery protocols. When organizations take steps like these, they can make it significantly more difficult for threat actors to attack their physical security devices.

While device hardening is extremely important, it is not a one-size-fits-all process. Different organizations have different hardening policies for their physical security devices, and sometimes these policies even vary within an organization. There are widely accepted industry best practices, but an organization may opt to be either stricter or less strict because of its specific needs, risks, capabilities, and other factors. 

Regardless of the choices your organization makes regarding its device hardening policies, it is critical to ensure that all physical security devices are hardened in line with these policies.

When performed manually, device hardening is too complex to be feasible at scale 

The problem is that it’s still common for organizations to take a manual approach to device hardening – and it’s simply too complicated of a process to be achievable manually at scale. 

Manually hardening devices is a tedious, time-consuming process, and both the scale and the variety of devices making up a typical fleet make it an especially massive project. Furthermore, rather than being a one-time step, device hardening can be a never-ending project. Even after you’ve initially hardened a device, your organization might change some of its policies, requiring changes in that device’s configuration settings. 

Given organizations’ widespread reliance on manual steps to address these issues, it’s no wonder that so many of their physical security teams find comprehensive device hardening to be virtually impossible. When this reality leaves their devices misaligned with information security (InfoSec) standards, they are left with cybersecurity gaps that can be exploited by threat actors. As a result, it is common for physical security teams to fail network penetration tests carried out by IT and cybersecurity professionals. 

Automation makes comprehensive device hardening possible

For organizations that take an automated approach to hardening their physical security devices, the reality is very different. Automation offers them the ability to harden their connected physical security devices rapidly and in bulk. 

With an automated approach, physical security devices can be hardened efficiently and cost-effectively. By preventing human error, organizations taking this approach can make sure their devices are hardened properly and consistently. And because this approach is highly customizable, it offers physical security teams significant flexibility – while letting them ensure that all of their devices are hardened according to their policies and specifications. 

In short, automation makes it possible for physical security teams to ensure that all of their devices are hardened reliably, helping them stay safe from the hackers and cybercriminals who would love to attack those devices. 

Not only does this help them to ensure compliance with their own organization’s cybersecurity policies and avoid the risk of failing a network penetration test, but it empowers them to stay safe from serious cyber threats.

CTA: For a broader look at what it takes to keep your physical security devices safe from hackers, check out The 7 Essentials for Cyber-Protecting Physical Security.