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The issue of silos is one brought up often in the security world, and for good reason — the presence of silos can limit not just the effectiveness of the security team, but of the organization as a whole. Let’s take a deeper look at the impact of silos, their historical entrenchment, how to bridge them and the resulting benefits that will accrue to your organization and its external partners.
Chief Security Officer and Executive Vice President of HSSE and Enterprise Quality at Jacobs, Joe Olivarez, warns that when silos are present, organizations “miss opportunities to scale resources and drive true operational efficiencies.” Furthermore, those that operate in silos lack the full picture of the risks they face.
“Risk does not move up and down,” Olivarez states. “It moves across your organization.”
Poor visibility can leave an organization vulnerable. Tara Dunning, Vice President of Global Security at Wesco, elaborates on these risks, saying, “As security disciplines converge, silos create dangerous blind spots that leave organizations vulnerable. When rapidly evolving physical and cyber systems are managed separately, or don’t share a common decision framework, gaps emerge that hackers can exploit.”
These gaps aren’t just problems for security teams — they can have impacts that resonate through the entire company.
“These silos lead to three major risks,” Dunning explains. “First, disconnected decision-making slows responses during crises, as teams scramble without a unified plan. Second, scattered data across systems obscures critical insights, making it hard to spot threats or optimize operations like building management. Finally, inconsistent policies heighten compliance risks, especially with regulations around privacy and ethical AI. For instance, a company neglecting to align its physical and cyber protocols might fail an audit, facing hefty fines. In today’s hyper-connected world, siloed systems aren’t just inefficient — they’re a recipe for disaster.”
At GSX this year, Bruce McIndoe shared his insights on the subject in an educational session titled “From Silos to Synergy: A Team-of-Teams Approach to Joint Operations Tailored to Your Organization.”
As the Founder of iJET/WorldAware (now Crisis24) and President of McIndoe Risk Advisory LLC, McIndoe has experienced how silos can negatively impact an organization. Particularly, when parts of an organization are sectioned off from each other, they lose the ability to approach issues with the proper perspectives, information and tools to solve them.
McIndoe jokes, “If you’re a carpenter and all you have is a hammer, then every solution uses a hammer — or every problem looks like a nail, even if it’s a screw.”
Without multiple departments or disciplines working together, problem-solving within the organization can be ineffective at its best, and nearly impossible at its worst. This is especially the case when confronted with the increasingly complex and interconnected threats we see today.
“That’s the problem when you don’t have multi-disciplinary expertise looking at an issue, because there may be different ways of approaching and solving it,” McIndoe states. “The other problem that we have, I call ‘the fragmented data problem.’ This is where the supply chain might have its data in one section, the physical security people will have theirs in another, the cyber team has theirs somewhere else, and so on. Without a single data hub, you miss those interconnections.”
Why Are Siloed Disciplines So Common?
McIndoe laments, “People always ask me, ‘How did we end up here?’”
Part of the reason is due to the differences in discipline development, Dunning explains.
“Historically, disciplines like physical security, cybersecurity, and crisis management evolved separately, each shaped by distinct technologies and expertise. In the pre-digital era, physical security relied on guards and locks, while cybersecurity was a niche IT function,” Dunning says. “The evolution of physical security from low voltage alarm systems on analogue lines to IP based solutions on rapidly expanding SMART edge networks, necessitates the bridging of silos. The explosion of connected devices and the use of IP cameras as ultimate sensors has blurred the lines between operational and information technology, making these disciplines interdependent. Proactively developing integrative processes and ongoing decision making with these vital disciplines is critical to staying secure in a hyper-connected world.”
Ultimately, it seems the answer is simple: this is just the way it’s always been done.
Olivarez notes that it’s not just security teams that operate in silos — entire organizations often have siloed structures, and security teams simply adapt to that environment. He explains, “Security teams frequently fall into the pattern of doing things the way they’ve always been done. But as a leader, you have the opportunity to break down those silos by driving outcomes, rather than passively accepting the status quo.”
How Can We Bridge the Silos?
When it comes to bridging these silos, the first step is to reach out a hand across the gap.
“Focus on relationship building from all angles,” Olivarez recommends. “A focus on relationship building does not mean you do all the talking — listen.”
Olivarez encourages security leaders to be intentional about their silo-bridging goal, approaching conversations with a partnership in mind.
“Come from the perspective that it’s not about territory or remit,” he says. “It’s about delivery excellence, enhanced risk understanding, talent development, and the ability to support the business in an expedited and informed manner.”
McIndoe shares his perspective on bridging silos, highlighting what essential foundations must be laid.
That’s the problem when you don’t have multi-disciplinary expertise looking at an issue, because there may be different ways of approaching it and solving it.”
“If you don’t have senior executive buy-in to pull this together, you’re not going to get the whole organization working together,” he points out. “So that’s a mandatory requirement.”
By proving the value of bridged silos to executives, security leaders can take the first fundamental step in building that bridge. Once that’s accomplished, it’s time to bring the whole organization together under one combined mission.
“You’ve got to establish a shared mission and a vision of what you’re trying to do with the program, so that all the disciplines that are involved are aligned,” McIndoe states. “This approach can be used at the organizational level and systematically down to the team level. But at the organizational level, if you don’t have a shared mission tied to the board & leadership organizational objectives, you’re going to go off the rails.”
One mistake McIndoe often sees is the compulsion to appoint someone to be in charge of the entire program.
“Rather than appointing hierarchical chiefs, embrace Gen. McCrystal’s Team-of-Teams model where autonomous, cross-functional teams operate with shared consciousness and empowered execution.” he says. “Each team maintains its own leadership while staying connected through transparent information sharing and aligned purpose. This preserves existing structures while enabling rapid adaptation and bridging of territorial silos. The key is fostering horizontal connections between teams while giving each authority to act quickly, creating an organic network that responds to complex challenges more effectively than rigid command-and-control structures.”
Building Bridges
Though silos may seem daunting to overcome, the bridges can be built. And once they are made, it’s important to maintain them.
“It’s a journey, and it does not happen by itself,” Olivarez insists. “You should be intentional in your leadership presence, you should be clear in your expectations, you should communicate often, and you should celebrate all that help in the success. It’s not about one person; it’s about the collective good.”
Dunning declares that by bridging silos, “organizations can close security gaps, boost efficiency and build a resilient future where threats have nowhere to hide.”
McIndoe adds, “In a world of accelerating complexity, our greatest competitive advantage isn’t technology or capital — it’s our ability to connect, adapt, and act as one interconnected force.”
https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/101940-building-bridges-overcoming-silos-to-bring-organizations-to-the-next-level