Dr Emma Boakes
Security convergence
Building an evidence-based roadmap
Biography
Emma Boakes recently completed her PhD at the University of Portsmouth. Her research investigates why, and how, organisations implement security convergence, and she has developed a roadmap to help organisations navigate the decisions around a move to converged security. Emma also has an MSc in Human Centred Computer Systems from the University of Sussex and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Plymouth.
Previously Emma worked in the private and public sectors, looking at how the design of systems impact the behaviours and performance of people. Her work across diverse industries, including health, defence, security and transport, frequently involved liaising with internal and external stakeholders, from board level to the general public, to inform project direction and outputs.
Presentation overview
Security convergence involves the integration of security resources within an organisation, requiring different security disciplines to work more closely together. Convergence has been advocated as a way of helping organisations understand and mitigate risks that cross the boundary between different security teams, in particular, vulnerabilities that are introduced with the introduction of cyber-physical systems.
There are few empirical studies that explore converged security, however, and no evidence-based guidance to help organisations make an informed decision about how to converge their security functions. Consequently, organisations may not be creating the holistic security they anticipate. This presentation details the findings of research that explores the real-world experiences of senior security practitioners who have worked in converged security functions. The presentation will outline why organisations adopt convergence and how they implement it, before presenting an evidence-based roadmap to help organisations navigate the decisions they need to make when adopting convergence.