In an age of the internet, physical security is often forgone in favour of cameras and motion sensors. But to protect your employees, products and information, the importance of physical security cannot be overlooked. A security audit will help you address any risks to ensure your business isn’t just safe from hackers – it’s safe from the real world too.

•Protect your data:

While confidential information and private data may be kept online, a physical security auditwill evaluate how effectively your security policies are being put into practice. You’ll uncover gaps and vulnerabilities in your current system, so you can improve them in the future.

Whether employees are ignoring procedures for the sake of convenience, or simply forgetting to perform them, noncompliance with security practices can be incredibly damaging for your company.

This can be as simple as information being read over a shoulder, or a usb being left in a café. A good plan will assess physical security from both a digital and human perspective. This means it should cover the physical space in and around your building, treating it like access to digital information. Access should be based on need, rather than convenience. A physical security audit will find gaps you never knew existed, and you’ll be able to come up with an improved strategy that will cover them.

•Safety first:

No matter how important your data and products may be, there isn’t anything more important than yours and your employee’s physical safety.

Through a good audit, you’ll find the gaps in your buildings security. Credentials can play a big role in who you let into your space and for how long. For instance, it wouldn’t be reasonable for a delivery person to stay for more than a few minutes, and they should have no reason to come beyond your front desk. Letting them in any further gives them access to everything inside your building, including your staff. Checking the credentials of everyone who wants access to your workplace will help protect your business – as will locks! Key codes are a great way to control who gets into your office, and you can have them not just at the entrance but in varying places throughout the building, such as at elevators and stairwells.

•What to plan for:

For an effective physical security audit, you’ll need to decide on your objectives and scope. The main objective should always be to assess the effectiveness of your security measures, generally using four specific objectives to ensure your success:

1. To assess your physical security and your risk management process, with a focus on activities performed at within your workspace.

2. To ensure that everyone within your security team has a set of clearly defined roles and responsibilities, which are performed by the appropriate person and for the span of their workday.

3. To determine whether access to your workplace, classified information and sensitive assets are limited to authorised people who have undergone appropriate screening.

4. To ensure that employees are aware of their responsibilities and roles in regard to their security, and that of your business.

The scope of your audit should include all facilities used during security operations, regardless of their ownership. It should also include all employees and managers with any form of security responsibility.

With a thorough and comprehensive physical security, conducted by experienced professionals, you can rest assured that your business and everything in it is safe from conceivable threats, physical and cyber.  If you don’t already have a security system in place, we definitely recommend contacting an expert team immediately.

Author Bio:

Manoj K, owner of Manksa that provide exceptional security guard services in Gurgaon, Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and surrounding areas for a variety of applications – all with great success.