Blog
PHYSICAL SECURITY AWARENESS TIPS FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION
- March 11, 2021
- Posted by: SSDC Online Nigeria
- Category: blog
Employees in organizations are constantly exposed to threats to their safety and security. And the need to prepare them to be able to adequately avoid these threats, and deal with them in the event of an occurrence cannot be overemphasized,
Below are few tips that, if applied would be of great benefit to members of organizations.:
1. Encourage Shared Responsibility
Expand the responsibility for security awareness beyond a small team of dedicated staff. Make security awareness everyone’s responsibility, and your organization will be able to respond to threats the instant they appear.
2. Conduct Security Awareness Training
Training gives employees a deeper understanding of the potential threats they may encounter. You can also teach them proven ways to respond so they aren’t left guessing what to do in a moment of crisis.
3. Document Strong Policies
Make sure you have policies documenting how to handle the most common security problems your organization will face. At most businesses, this will mean threats like theft and trespassers.
You also need to document the emergency response plan for more serious events unique to your area. For example, if your region experiences hurricanes or wildfires, you will want a natural disaster response policy.
4. Identify Essential Staff
It is rare that a business can instantly shut down every single operation when an emergency is declared. Critical equipment, such as in manufacturing assembly lines, may require special shutdown procedures. Identify who in your organization needs to continue working on which tasks when an emergency is declared.
5. Assign Emergency Manager Roles
One essential staff role every business needs to assign is an emergency manager. Emergency managers stay behind to ensure your facility is vacant during emergency evacuations, and they take roll calls at muster points to confirm that everyone is accounted for.
6. Have a Plan for Managing Illness
A Contagious disease can be a security threat to businesses, just like fire or theft. Make your employees aware of the risk. Make sure you have a way to screen for illnesses and a procedure for responding when a sick individual is identified.
7. Make Discretion a Habit
If a visitor or contractor is acting suspiciously, say something. Only share organizational information when absolutely necessary. Discretion in everything is a good habit to cultivate.
8. Limit External Access When Possible
External access points should be few, and should always be lockable and fireproof. This includes both doors and windows. The greater security a space demands, the fewer windows you should install.
9. Deploy Strong Access Control Systems Where You Can’t
For main entryways and other hard-to-secure locations, you need strong access control. Have a system for authenticating the identity of every person that needs to move between secured spaces.
10. Discourage Tailgating
Tailgating is when an unauthorized person follows an authorized person through an access control point. Even minor tailgating incidents need to be discouraged to prevent bad habits from forming. Bad habits might permit a serious breach down the road.
11. Use Strong Authentication Methods
Authentication methods need to be appropriately strong for each location. For low-risk facilities, an inexpensive PIN code lock might be suitable. To protect high-value assets or space, biometric access control might be more appropriate.
12. Integrate Authentication for Better Efficiency
Most major access control systems allow third-party integrations. This means you can connect one master staff and access the role database to multiple security systems at once for easier management.
13. Watch Out for Social Engineering Attacks
Much like tailgating, attackers use social engineering to exploit your employees’ good intentions in order to gain access to secure resources; for example, by innocently asking to borrow a coworker’s access card, which they use to steal company equipment. Your access control measures should verify the identity of the requesting individual and log the access request in case it needs to be audited later.
14. Have an Emergency Action Plan (EAP)
An EAP details how your business will respond to any emergency that forces you to suspend normal operations. It should include instructions for emergency managers. It should also include instructions for how to protect employees and business resources.
15. Have a Business Continuity Plan
A business continuity plan could be part of an EAP, or separate, depending on your specific needs. You need a documented procedure outlining what your organization needs to do during an emergency and after a shutdown in order to maintain business as usual.
16. Reduce Manual Security Procedures
The more processes you can automate, the more efficient your overall security program will become. Automated security procedures are more reliable mainly because they avoid human error.
17. Use Photo Identification
Authentication is much easier when employee ID photos are part of your credentials. Consider using access control systems that have a camera to record transaction requests.
18. Perform Annual Security Assessments
Threats are always evolving. Your organization’s security awareness needs to evolve with them. Schedule annual security assessments that look at your program’s performance for the previous year and look ahead to what you need to change in the coming year.
19. Analyze & Monitor on a Regular Basis
In addition to major annual reviews, you should build in smaller periodic assessments of your security program. This helps build the habit of security awareness and keeps your program running efficiently.
20. Use Surveillance for Detection and Deterrence
Surveillance systems have multiple uses in a security program. They improve your awareness of who and what is moving around your facility. Conspicuous surveillance systems can act as a deterrent to criminals who don’t want to be filmed. Surveillance recordings can also aid investigations after a security incident occurs.