March 18, 2005—The Open Security Exchange, a cross-industry association dedicated to addressing interoperability between disparate systems and recommending best practices for the convergence of physical and IT security, announced three new work initiatives to forward the mission of the organization. The initiatives were among several discussed at the first meeting of the Convergence Council held February 9, 2005. New initiatives recommended by the Convergence Council in collaboration with OSE Advisory Members include:
- The OSE should become a “knowledge broker” in the area of IT and physical security convergence. By forming a work group to review available documents from many cross-industry sources, the OSE will pull these documents together to assist end users in quickly researching topics of interest and identifying resources that can assist in problem-solving.
- There is a need to simplify the credentialing and de-provisioning of a combined physical and IT credential. A new work group will begin to address this topic by combining the real-world experience of the Convergence Council members with available technologies and best practices offered by industry.
- There is a need to synchronize the multiple “people systems” (i.e., individual databases used for human resources, physical security, IT, etc.) used in enterprise and government today. A work group will look at how this synchronization is done today and what improvements are possible.
For more information about Open Security Exchange, see the organizations Web site.
