‘Physical security’ is an often overlooked aspect of the security. It is often ‘taken for granted’ and most organizations do not take it seriously. Danny Thakkar from Bayometric.com defines physical security as “… a set of security measures taken to ensure that only authorized personnel have access to equipment, resources and other assets in a facility, these measures are laid out for” (Thakkar)
“Physical security” is ensuring the data centers, servers, printers, workstations and all other devices are secured from both man-made and natural disasters. How do we achieve this? By erecting defenses, in the path of thieves and hackers and anybody else who wants to get their way in. These physical defenses are “physical security”. While absolute security can never be achieved, we can plug in the holes in defenses and hope to keep the critical resources safe from external and internal factors. In this article, we will look at the broad steps that are needed to seal the vulnerabilities and ensure ‘physical security’.
How do we establish physical security?
Physical security can be established by enforcing appropriate access control, surveillance and testing . Physical security will have multiple layers to make sure that critical resources are never compromised. How do we implement physical security? A few points are listed below:
- The simplest and most effective way of implementing physical security is secure the place by means of old-fashioned locks. In addition, the appropriate zones can be sealed by means of biometric systems.
- At the outermost layer, the organization should be fenced properly and all entry points should have good locking systems and appropriate entry authentication mechanisms
- The entire facility should also be well lit
- The organization should be well guarded by adequate security personnel at all entry points’
- ‘Surveillance’ can be implemented by installing CCTV cameras within various points in an organization
- All employees should have appropriate security badges and this must be authenticated at the entry door by swiping. Ex-employees should be removed from the company’s database to make sure that they do not have the authorization to enter the company.
These are some steps to thwart direct physical attacks.
So, the next time you see CCTV cameras, security badges and fingerprint authentication – remember it is one of the simplest Information security concepts doing its hard work…. 🙂
We saw the concept of ‘physical security’ in this post. Join me as I uncover more Information security concepts in future posts….
Bibliography
Thakkar, D. (n.d.). Best Practices in Physical Security Management: Safeguard your Organization against Threats. Retrieved from Bayometric.com: https://www.bayometric.com/best-practices-physical-security-management/