In this week’s “Time to Head North” episode, we sit down with Microsoft’s Brian Tuskan. We talked with Brian about the progression of his career and the misunderstanding of the security industry in general. Brian started his career patrolling Waikiki Beach and now leads security for Microsoft, one of the world’s most influential companies. One of his many ambitions is to lead more people to the private security sector.

“The private security world is a well- defined profession.” Brian wants to ensure that all understand the encompassing definition of the security sector. “It’s risk, enterprise risk, crisis management, not just shaking door handles and walking people to their cars. You don’t need a military or law enforcement background.”

Brian found himself mid-career, thinking there’s more I could do. Twenty-two years later, after holding most security positions at Microsoft, he is now a decision-maker. He encourages more people in that life space to think about transitioning to the private sector. Brian even has his nonprofit, Cop to Corporate, to help mentor others to adjust to life post law-enforcement.

We came across an article Brian wrote about the necessity of synergy between physical security and technology. “As a physical security lead executive, we need to focus on operations to focus on employees, and kinetic threats that can impact our customers, clients. Focus on life safety. For anything technology, we need to rely on strategic partners. We have a whole cyber team that does the magic.”

With any relationship, it does take cooperation. Brian says they come up with some requirements to aid the cyber team. “We are providing robust requirements and tweaking things. I see the convergence. They’re interdependent. You can have the best cyber security in the world, but if someone can get in the back door physically and affect the server or data center, you’re going to have problems. So, you have to work together.”

As far as the most significant security challenges in 2023, Brian cites political unrest and geopolitical issues. “From a physical security perspective, just being prepared making sure employees feel safe to come to work. No one wants to come to work if they can’t even walk to the building without getting harassed.”

This is just a snippet of the interview; watch it in its entirety below. Check out more podcast episodes on our website, iTunes, Podbean, or Spotify.