From Cost Center to Secret Weapon: What Security Teams Can Teach Marketers

At the recent ISC East conference, security leaders made a complaint that should sound familiar to marketers: Their teams are still seen as a cost center while they're protecting the whole business from behind the scenes.

The Security Industry Association (SIA) panel dug into three big themes: digital identity, cross-department data value, and post-quantum risk. While these may not seem like they have much to do with modern B2B marketing, they actually map perfectly. For example, stronger identity controls and onboarding are essential as attackers aren't just stealing passwords; they're now impersonating employees. This same mindset applies to your team's customer and prospect data. If you can't confidently verify who's who, every downstream decision from personalization to access could be compromised.

Traditional security tools can also be leveraged to gather important business intelligence and behavioral data. Camera and sensor data inform foot-traffic flows, product placement and customer experience scores, showing how operational data can fuel CX, revenue, and better budget conversations. However, teams operating in siloes aren't sharing this data — do you even know what you might be missing?

Now, the word "quantum" can be a little intimidating — don't worry, we won't quiz you on what it actually means — but you should know that the SIA panel suggested that quantum computing could break today's encryption within a decade or so, turning long-lived data into a liability. Their advice? Don't wait. Treat identity, encryption, and data governance as strategic brand assets now, not cleanup work later. The teams that connect security, data, and brand trust today will be the ones still standing when quantum shows up.

Read more at SecurityInfoWatch.