What is the Need for Physical Security Audit & Assessment?

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Security Solutions | UK

By now you should know that security is one of the most crucial components in today’s workplace, from small businesses to large organisations. It’s your first line of security against intruders, natural catastrophes, and other disruptive occurrences that could put your company on the wrong track. However, if you’re like most business owners, you’re undoubtedly asking how to ensure that your security system is up to par. What is the solution? Performing a physical security audit.

Physical Security Assessment

A physical security assessment is a thorough physical inspection and evaluation of every part of your security system, its controls, and parameters throughout your area or facility, as the name implies. This is done on a micro and macro level, providing you with the information you need to make better decisions about how to run your facility. In general, a physical security risk assessment is a procedure that involves conducting a thorough audit and assessing the results, and it applies to the complete physical security system of a structure. Use these suggestions to make sure you’re doing everything right and keeping your place secure from injury.

It’s Unique

There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all physical security system. Every place and structure is distinct, and security requirements evolve. Security systems in today’s facilities must secure both the perimeter and the sensitive data and information that is continuously in motion. As a result, even if you’ve deployed security measures in the past, they may not match current security standards.

Don’t put off assessing your physical security until after a breach has occurred. A site assessment with a certified security professional can assist you in improving the security of your building by detecting weak points in your present system and determining the best technology to protect your space. To establish your risk level and explore strategies to mitigate potential risks to your building security, contact your integrator and go over this checklist with them.

Understanding Physical Security Audit

Physical security Audit is a physical examination and assessment of hardware, technology, and practices that protect the physical assets within your space, including equipment, files, and other hardware. By and large, it is an examination of each piece of the larger system, which can often be quite large even in smaller offices. It’s a well-defined and vital process that’s widely used to meet the needs of a variety of regulatory bodies and standards organisations, including certification authorities and even government agencies. During a physical security evaluation, all types of physical security systems that have been implemented are thoroughly reviewed.

Physical security threats and vulnerabilities to the resources, assets, and sensitive information that make your organisation run include natural dangers like fire and human threats like burglary. Putting these in jeopardy exposes your company to significant damages or possible litigation, which you want to avoid. The most prevalent threats can infiltrate your wireless network or physically enter your home.

If a hacker can physically visit your site instead of acting from far, breaking into software and other internet-enabled resources is significantly easier. As a result, your space’s physical security system should be active, effective, and alert at all times. Physical security audits are used to keep track of how responsive the company is. This security audit checklist can assist you in identifying faults and deficiencies in your security system so that you can quickly address them before a serious security breach occurs. To protect your assets and sensitive information, you’ll need a strong security system.

Physical Security Management vs. Physical Security Assessments‍

Although physical security management and physical security assessments may appear to be identical at first glance, they are fundamentally different. The availability, deployment, and maintenance of security systems are examined in a physical security assessment, whereas security management frequently maintains a security system daily. Security audits identify security flaws and weaknesses in existing security mechanisms, then provide solutions to specific issues. Security management, on the other hand, is a more routine procedure that maintains your system online. While both are necessary to run an effective business, auditing and assessing your physical security system is important if you want to improve the safety of your facility.

How to Find Physical Security Issues‍?

Physical security audits might reveal a variety of issues with your system or operations. Human guards, physical locks, intelligent locks, fences, a CCTV system, sufficient lighting, and alarms, among other security measures, may be included in a comprehensive security system. Conducting a physical security audit will reveal exactly where your facility’s security holes are, indicating if you need to invest in more equipment or better operational procedures.

Operational concerns come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but they always revolve around the people who manage your access control system. Poor security guard motivation, supervision, and monitoring can lead to noncompliance with security policy procedures. Employees who take little care of your costly assets, such as laptops, furniture, office equipment, and common amenities, make them ideal targets for theft. Employees and security personnel may have been badly taught or are simply unaware of existing security policies and procedures, resulting in poor asset management. Your employees may forget or refuse to wear their ID badges at all times, leaving the cards vulnerable to theft and making it more difficult to verify the identity of those who work there. Higher management may simply have neglected to follow proper processes recommended by a previous audit, resulting in system flaws.

Visitors could be a problem as well. Many third-party contractors and staff do not always wear their allotted access cards, causing the system to malfunction. On their temporary badges, their photographs may likewise be unidentifiable. Another big issue that security audits frequently uncover is a lack of control over the guests who enter your facility. Many staff either accompany their visitors or fail to properly record their visits in the visitor registers.

Other issues arise as a result of the security system’s equipment. Many facility owners face a lack of security when handling and moving data and files within the organisation, outside its borders, and over the internet. Another issue that can cause a slew of issues is untrained system administrators improperly or incorrectly monitoring your security system.

The testing, maintenance, and monitoring of security equipment at all points are frequently not carried out under your policy. Inadequate lighting inside and outside the structure, as well as in the parking lot and at entry points, can make burglary and theft simpler. Intrusion detection systems, fire alarm systems, and CCTV monitoring systems, among other items, are frequently not thoroughly checked, which means they could be inoperable without anyone knowing. ‍

Scheduling Physical Security Assessments‍

Physical security assessment requirements vary depending on the type of firm you run, where you live, local statutes and guidelines, and even industry compliance measures. Many businesses find that doing security evaluations yearly is the most efficient and effective method. Physical security assessments are conducted twice a year, or even quarterly, by certain corporations with higher security requirements or huge enterprises. ‍

Scheduled security assessments should be carried out in compliance with local authority norms and regulations as well as leading industry best practices. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) also requires some examinations, but these are regulated differently depending on the industry. Perform a complete audit at least once a year to err on the side of caution. You can, however, undertake your own smaller inspections on a monthly or even weekly basis, which can help you discover flaws before they become security risks.

Conducting Physical Security Audits‍

It’s now time to begin preparing for your first complete security evaluation. Taking all of the above into consideration, you’ll need to perform some thorough preparation to ensure that you don’t leave anything out, no matter how minor. In your physical security audit checklist, there are a few primary categories to explore, and each category should be further broadened by asking questions about how it operates in your company. Consider management policy, physical security policy, risk assessment, access control, employee security, data and information security, emergency communication, fast response, and technology.

You must list all of the corresponding elements or policies for each facet of your physical security system. Begin by following a few basic steps that will help you obtain a better knowledge of your structure. Determine the level of physical security risk associated with each piece of technology or gear you’ve deployed. If you don’t already have one, develop a security management policy and ensure sure your controls are compatible with it. Audit and review each employee’s security level or access level to ensure that no one has more or less access than they require. And, if you discover severe flaws, address them as quickly as feasible.

Examine each fire extinguisher in your area. Examine the windows for any cracks. In each card reader, swipe a card. Examine the security of your door locks. Attempt to set off each alarm. Assess how each audit goes and make necessary adjustments to help you expand sustainably. You obtain a knowledge of how everything works in harmony and what, if anything, needs to be altered or updated by getting up close and personal with every piece of the bigger system.

Summing-up

Developing a plan for your first full physical security assessment, especially for firms that are just getting started or have relocated, can be difficult. However, the advantages of this method are simply too fantastic to pass up. Physical security evaluations should be conducted regularly to protect your company’s assets as well as the people who work under you and rely on a secure environment to do their tasks.

It’s practically hard to run a business without running into high levels of risk if you don’t have a complete physical security assessment programme in place. It’s worth the time to double-check each part of your physical security plan and make any necessary improvements if you want your staff and clients to trust you with their data. This method, when combined with an access control system, makes facilities significantly safer in the long run. So put in the effort upfront, and then sit back and watch as your physical security system makes your office safer over time.

Physical security is usually ignored when it comes to security planning for a company. A sound physical security system is greatly important to safeguard the most important assets of the organization, its employees. Their safety should be at the top followed by securing your facilities and data. While preparing your business against cybersecurity is crucial, physical security threats should not be overlooked. Having proper physical security methods in place can amount to a huge difference in keeping your business and data safe.

Shergroupies with their experts can help you with the best physical security solutions to combat the obstacles and smoothen your workflow and ensure your office space is well protected with the most appropriate physical security system in place.