As we look toward 2025, the complexity of security continues to grow exponentially with stakes higher than ever. To stay one step ahead of security threats while juggling new technologies, heavy workloads, and budget limitations, security teams need more sophisticated, data-driven solutions and integrated services that simplify overall building management and enhance occupant protection for these spaces.
The nature of threats, both physical and digital, continues to shift, creating opportunities for bad actors and system malfunctions. This ever-shifting landscape demands a proactive approach from security teams, who must go beyond traditional prevention methods to adopt advanced strategies. By taking a hands-on role in monitoring and responding to emerging risks, building owners can better safeguard their infrastructure, and occupants.
This piece will explore six industry shifts observed by security leaders in 2024 and the considerations necessary for teams to thrive in the changing landscape.
1. Threat Detection Advancements
With the integration of AI and other cutting-edge technologies, threat detection has become a key enabler in reducing security vulnerabilities for building owners. These advancements empower security teams to proactively identify and address potential risks before they become critical issues. Early detection and real-time alerts allow for swift mitigation, preventing minor issues from escalating into costly regrets. This not only streamlines operations but also reduces the burden on technicians, ultimately cutting operational costs and enhancing overall system efficiency.
Solutions that offer 360-degree visibility across all assets are a necessity for eliminating blind spots in both physical and cyber infrastructures. By implementing a comprehensive security strategy, building owners can improve their ability to identify unusual or suspicious activities across all their systems. Additionally, a holistic approach ensures every part of their infrastructure is monitored and safeguarded, leaving no gaps where vulnerabilities could go unnoticed or unaddressed. With 63% of retail and commercial real estate leaders stating their organization lacks 24/7 visibility into all security systems, threat detection is a simple yet overlooked solution that is much needed to ensure efficiency.
2. Customization for Asset Protection
Generic, one-size-fits-all security solutions are no longer effective in keeping customers safe. Security teams must now prioritize tailored options that address their facilities’ specific needs. Different parts of a facility often face unique security challenges, so the best solutions are those flexible enough to support a variety of use cases across departments. However, customization shouldn’t come at the cost of usability. Security teams still prefer solutions that are simple, scalable, and designed to streamline their work rather than complicate it.
3. Automation for Proactive and Efficient Service Delivery
Modern security teams, often stretched thin, are constantly seeking ways to optimize their time, budgets, and resources. This has led to a growing investment in problem-solving services. Automation is playing a transformative role in the security industry, enabling services such as 24/7 monitoring, managed technology, and proactive maintenance, inspection and testing of security systems. By taking over repetitive and time-consuming tasks, automation allows security personnel to focus on higher-priority responsibilities that require human judgment and expertise.
In addition, automated systems provide consistent and precise operations, eliminating human error and improving accuracy in areas such as threat detection and system diagnostics. As security threats become increasingly complex, the ability to respond quickly and effectively is more important than ever, making automation an indispensable tool for modern security teams.
4. Data and Analytics
Data is a critical resource for security teams, with AI serving as the driving force behind extracting deeper insights from large datasets. In recent years, AI has gained significant attention, with rapid advancements and widespread adoption across industries. This technology is increasingly being incorporated into security solutions to boost efficiency, deliver predictive, data-driven analytics, and support smarter business decision-making.
AI has proven to enhance a security team’s capabilities through streamlining the analysis of video footage, identifying and preventing unauthorized access, and detecting system faults before they escalate into expensive failures. Data and analytics applications enable security teams to stay ahead of potential risks before they begin, however with this comes the act of balancing the human touch with AI advancements to ensure strategic decision making.
5. Securing Remote Access
Accelerated by the pandemic, remote management of building systems has become the standard, enabling data collected from these systems to be analyzed and acted upon from offsite locations. This allows for the remote monitoring, diagnostics and servicing of critical infrastructure, including security systems. By complementing onsite staff or local technicians with remote capabilities, building leaders gain comprehensive support and the reassurance that security issues can be addressed anytime, from anywhere.
However, as more facilities adopt remote monitoring and service models, ensuring the security of these data exchanges has become a top priority. The challenge lies in balancing increased innovation and productivity with robust cybersecurity measures, making secure remote access one of the most pressing concerns in cloud security today.
6. ESG’s Role in Security
While on the surface environmental, social, and governance (ESG) priorities may seem miles away from security operations, but the two go hand in hand to enable responsible corporate citizenship. These initiatives not only help businesses operate responsibly—reducing their environmental impact and supporting their communities—but also contribute to long-term success.
Breaches to physical or cyber systems can harm individuals, disrupt businesses, and affect entire communities. From this perspective, strong security measures are essential for organizations to protect their operations, comply with evolving regulations, and maintain financial stability.
Driven by these six shifts and more, the security landscape is changing quickly, influenced by technology, shifting threats, and evolving customer needs. To better protect assets and minimize vulnerabilities, security teams must adopt advanced solutions, utilizing automation and the benefits of AI and data analytics. At the same time, focusing on remote access approaches and addressing ESG responsibilities will help building owners stay ahead while ensuring a more secure and responsible future. With these strategies in place, building owners can effectively manage the challenges of 2025 and beyond, maintaining a resilient and adaptable security infrastructure.
