Security convergence means seeing the big picture

Employees who work in separate departments of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service regularly come together to discuss security convergence: bringing together building and network security operations.

In doing so, the employees are beginning to understand their part in the larger scheme of securing the agency, said Nicole Gray Davis, an inspector and the service’s Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 program manager.

Gray Davis said employees have become acquainted with other parts of the organization. “We tend to stay in our lanes,” she said.
There are rewards for working in a single lane. For example, employees become experts in their areas — a necessity in an information technology environment that is growing increasingly complex, she said.

But after working with other departments, employees often say they didn’t realize how their work fits into the whole, Gray Davis said. “The beauty is when we bring things to the table and share with everyone else.”