A prime example of this kind of teamwork is the collaboration between the bank's information security division and its internal and external auditors to root out Nigerian investment scams, says Gallagher. In most fraud investigations, the bank's corporate security department conducts the financial investigation, along with related interviews and research. But when the scams are based on e-mail solicitations, the information security group supports the investigative efforts.

While the details change with the specifics of each case, the information security group may, for example, conduct research on network activity to support the fraud investigation. "The key here is that these efforts are not separate but closely coordinated," Gallagher says. And this collaboration resulted from conversations between managers for each group, not a corporate mandate, he adds.

The diversity of both groups' staffs also facilitates teamwork. Bank of America's physical security division has a lot of staffers with technical backgrounds, and the information security department has several people with Secret Service experience and other government security backgrounds, says Smith.

"Effective investigations demand drawing all of the talent you have available to you," says Gallagher.

Waste Management Inc. began converging its physical and logical security groups three years ago to monitor its fire alarm, burglar alarm, facility access and digital video recording systems. Now, instead of paying security firms to monitor fire and burglar alarms, Waste Management does it in-house. It also netted $500,000 in first-year cost savings and cost avoidance, says Rogers, who in addition to her role at the ISSA is director of information safeguards at the Houston-based trash hauler.