{"id":182700,"date":"2026-01-29T12:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T17:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/29\/cybersecurity-physical-security-and-energy-needs-will-join-extreme-weather-to-shape-2026-facility-resilience-plans\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T12:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T17:15:08","slug":"cybersecurity-physical-security-and-energy-needs-will-join-extreme-weather-to-shape-2026-facility-resilience-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/29\/cybersecurity-physical-security-and-energy-needs-will-join-extreme-weather-to-shape-2026-facility-resilience-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Cybersecurity, physical security and energy needs will join extreme weather to shape 2026 facility resilience plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cybersecurity, physical security and energy needs will join extreme weather to shape 2026 facility resilience plans<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.facilitiesdive.com\/news\/cybersecurity-physical-security-and-energy-needs-will-join-extreme-weather\/810848\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-01-29 12:07:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.facilitiesdive.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

Planning how to maintain operations in the face of a natural disaster is a smart step for facilities managers who are concerned that hurricanes, floods, wildfire, tornadoes and other weather events are getting stronger and more frequent. But as the economic, social, and geopolitical trends of 2026 come into focus, facilities managers might broaden their resiliency thinking to include other risks as well, building operations specialists say.\u00a0
\n\u201cWhether the risk is weather related, energy or IT related, or even a bad actor, you\u2019re going to have to think through the same processes,\u201d Laurie Gilmer, president and COO of Facility Engineering Associates, said in an interview. \u201cWith any of these risks, you can have loss of power, loss of infrastructure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Going into 2026, the best practice for facilities managers is to incorporate other types of risk into disaster preparedness as the U.S. sees heightened incidents of civil unrest and workplace violence along with rising energy insecurity. Even tariffs and rising prices for valuable metals, like copper, are adding to the insecurity mix by making building mechanical systems targets of thieves.
\n\u201cThe security [risk] situation has been increasing in the last 8-10 years \u2014 [especially] since COVID,\u201d Michael Evanoff, chief security officer of cloud-based security company Verkada, told Facilities Dive. \u201cCivility, rhetoric, radicalization of social media \u2014 it\u2019s just a volatile landscape. Also add in mental health issues. It\u2019s all coming together.\u201d
\nEnsuring operational resilience now requires broader thinking. \u201cIt\u2019s [protecting against] any kind of disruption,\u201d Gilmer said.
\n\u201cThe only way you’re going to survive [this environment] is if you’ve got a level of resiliency \u2014 resiliency in terms of how you build and operate your portfolios and facilities, but also in your teams,\u201d Paul Morgan, global chief operating officer of real estate at JLL, said in an interview.\u00a0
\nThese and other experts outlined the variety of risks they\u2019re preparing for in 2026.
\nWeather risks
\nInsurance risk management company Sedgwick says it\u2019s likely the U.S. will see at least one major hurricane this year, even though most of the hurricanes in the Atlantic last year never made landfall. \u201cHistory reminds us that hurricane lulls never last long,\u201d Andy McCallum, the company\u2019s vice president of specialty operations, says in a post on the company\u2019s blog.<\/p>\n

In California, the state\u2019s forestry and fire protection agency is predicting a bad fire season in the southern part of the state. \u201cAbove-normal large fire potential is forecast through December due to the combination of well-above-normal temperatures, well-below-normal precipitation, and normal-to-above-normal Santa Ana wind activity,\u201d the agency says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Powerful winds fueled multiple fires across the Los Angeles area in early 2025. Natural disaster risks to facilities could increase in 2026, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.\u00a0
\nApu Gomes via Getty Images
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether 2026 winds up being a big year for storms, funding cuts to the National Weather Service mean facilities managers could have less time to prepare for any weather emergencies that arrive.\u00a0
\n\u201cUnderstaffing of NWS offices and degradation of infrastructure like weather radars [raise] questions about the adequacy of warnings,\u201d Marshall Shepherd, a professor of meteorology at the University of Georgia and a former president of the American Meteorological Society, says in a Forbes commentary.
\nResiliency in the context of extreme weather means relocating critical infrastructure to damage-resistant buildings, having backup power ready to go, communicating a plan for evacuating occupants and enabling employees to keep working remotely, among other things, Gilmer said.\u00a0
\n\u201cIt\u2019s future-proofing,\u201d she said. \u201cWhere is your mechanical equipment? Where is your electrical equipment? Is your critical infrastructure on the ground floor? What does that mean? Do we relocate [that equipment]?\u201d
\nEnergy reliability risks
\nFacilities managers can expect higher energy prices and potentially more or longer power interruptions this year as grids across the country deal with the strain of data center and other growth in demand as well as more extreme weather.\u00a0
\n\u201cWe forecast electricity consumption will grow by 1% in 2026 and 3% in 2027, marking the first four years of consecutive growth since 2005\u201307,\u201d the U.S. Energy Information Administration says in a January press release. \u201cThe driving factor behind this surge is increasing demand from large computing centers.\u201d
\nIn its January 2026 update, the agency says the retail electricity price for all sectors at the end of 2025 was 13.63\u00a2 per kWh, a 5.2% increase over the same time in 2024.\u00a0
\nMore blackouts are expected to come with higher prices, according to reports. \u201cAI data centers on the East Coast are gobbling up so much juice that nonprofit grid operator PJM may be forced to enact rolling blackouts on its customers during both heat waves and exceptionally cold weather just to protect the grid\u2019s integrity,\u201d a January Futurism report says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Technician working at electricity power station during power outage. Data centers are imposing a strain on power grids could lead to more blackouts in 2026.
\nGetty Images
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

Allan Schurr, chief commercial officer at Enchanted Rock, which provides resiliency as a service, said his company is starting to see interest from operators of commercial buildings other than the kind of facilities it typically sees, like hospitals and manufacturing plants.\u00a0
\n\u201cWe have grocery stores [coming to us],\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cThey want to be there for their customers when there\u2019s an emergency.\u201d
\nAfter the fire-related power disruptions California has faced in recent years, schools and municipal governments throughout the state are starting to install microgrids. The Ojai Unified School District, for example, deployed a solar and battery-powered microgrid at one of its high schools last year. \u201cThe microgrid will store up enough power to operate the school’s gymnasium and kitchen during a blackout,\u201d according to a story in the Ventura County Star.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A typical resiliency plan, with renewable power as a focus, even for a smaller facility, is to have a battery storage system supplemented with solar, D.R. Richardson, CEO and co-founder of Elephant Energy, said in an interview. \u201cYou can start with \u2026 a little bit of rooftop solar and a little bit of battery,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s going to let you disconnect from the grid in periods of instability and uncertainty, so that\u2019s the fastest way to get resiliency.\u201d\u00a0
\nPhysical security risks
\nIn a sign of the times perhaps, three Florida school districts last year worked with a security company to put drones in their schools to act as first responders in the event of an incident.\u00a0\u00a0
\nThe drones first interact with an intruder via two-way communications and can fire pepper spray pellets and take other measures to keep the intruder off guard until law enforcement arrives, according to the company.
\nWhile that might not be the right security move for everyone, building operators should consider doing more than just relying on conventional security cameras in 2026, security specialists say.\u00a0
\nFacility managers will be hamstrung if they\u2019re relying on analog cameras because those require someone to monitor video feeds if they want to stay on top of what\u2019s happening, Verkada\u2019s Evanoff said.
\nSmart cameras do the monitoring for the facility and send alerts when someone is seen loitering or trying to access the premises if they\u2019re not supposed to.\u00a0
\n\u201cIf your building had a problem in the past with an individual, [you have] his picture on your list,\u201d Evanoff said. \u201cIf that person tries to come on the property, the system alerts you on your phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameras can do more than take video.
\nGetty Images
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

Companies selling smart security cameras are starting to offer systems that include other features, like two-way voice communications, incident disruptors like sirens, flashing red lights and the ability to fire pepper spray pellets or release smoke.\u00a0
\n\u201cNinety-nine percent of the time [this resolves the issue],\u201d David Selinger, founder and CEO of security company Deep Sentinel, told Facilities Dive.\u00a0\u00a0
\nOther measures organizations are adding to increase facility security include bullet-resistant glass, a second set of doors so intruders who breach the premises can\u2019t access certain areas, weapons detectors and elevator shut-off buttons that approved staff can trigger. More organizations are also giving facilities and frontline staff panic buttons.
\nCybersecurity risks
\nBuilding operators will increasingly have to consider not just physical security but cybersecurity because hackers are starting to see the vulnerabilities of HVAC, lighting and other building management systems as an easy-access door to an organization\u2019s broader IT network, cybersecurity specialists say.\u00a0
\nThese building systems were never designed to be secure, Troy Cruzen, virtual chief information security officer at Fortified Health Security, said in an interview last year on network risks posed by building systems. \u201cThey were just designed to provide HVAC [or other] capabilities,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s just the reality of hackers. They can leverage those vulnerabilities and make it a bigger deal than they were designed to be.\u201d
\nMost building management systems today are cloud-based and link into an organization’s network so the systems can send out real-time alerts and transmit data, enabling building operators to optimize the systems they oversee and generate reports.\u00a0
\nThat\u2019s been a boon to optimization efforts, but it\u2019s creating a security headache for IT staff, according to a report by cyber-physical systems protection company Claroty. Some \u201c75% of organizations are managing building management system devices with known exploited vulnerabilities,” the report says. \u201cMany of these systems do not support cybersecurity features, and direct connectivity to the enterprise network or public internet introduces new risks to the business.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s typically not the role of facilities managers to lead network security, but the best practice today is for them to make sure their organization\u2019s IT team knows what building systems are in place, what they do and how they connect to the network.\u00a0
\n\u201cNo one knows that facility better than the facility manager and their team,\u201d Sean Tufts, field chief technology officer at Claroty, said in an interview. \u201cSo, they are the business. We cannot do anything without them.\u201d
\nCruzen says the most straightforward way for facilities managers to secure building systems is to work with IT colleagues to put them on a separate virtual local area network, or VLAN. If they do that, the system will still have connections to the main network, so it can send alerts and operate other functions that require connectivity, but access points are minimized. That means if hackers get access to the HVAC management system, they\u2019re largely cut off from the main network.
\n\u201cIsolating it takes it away from the front door and puts it more in the attic,\u201d Cruzen said. \u201cYou have to come through the attic to get into the house.\u201d
\nFacilities managers will have to work with IT to inventory all the building systems, identify how and where they\u2019re connected, and figure out where the access points to the network should be, how many of them there should be and how that access should be created.
\n\u201cThere are predictions out there of these systems becoming more of a leveraged target,\u201d Cruzen said. \u201cAs they become more of a focal point, you open a can of worms\u2026. There are going to be some organizations that unfortunately get burned by this.\u201d<\/p>\n

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