Cybersecurity is a big deal that every business needs to take seriously. Criminals lurk in every corner of the digital space, waiting for you to fall for one of their schemes so that they can steal your data. That being said, risks aren’t just faced within your servers. There are also many problems you could fall into at the office, at home, or on the streets. You need to be able to keep your facilities and employees safe, which is precisely where physical security comes into play.
Physical security is all about the response to real-world threats. Unfortunately, there is so much out there that could bring down your business’s IT infrastructure. There are accidents by your staff due to improper training, natural disasters, and thieves from outside of the dark web. You shouldn’t rely on insurance coverage. Instead, you need to take the extra steps to ensure your physical security as best as you can. Let’s discuss why you should get started with the proactive skills of managed security and IT service providers.
Use physical security technology to detect vulnerabilities and slow down intruders. You need to be able to identify threats, delay them as much as possible, and effectively respond to them. Keep in mind that you should take a layered approach to security. Here are two critical components of your physical security framework.
If your business has a building with multiple entry points, surveillance is necessary. Specifically, video surveillance through closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras. These can be placed at several angles so that, if someone who wasn’t supposed to be in your office ends up there, you can get more of a read on them. You can even install cameras with notification systems. That will allow you to keep up with what is happening, even when you are nowhere near the building. To get the most out of your cameras, use real-time footage and recorded activity.
It is important to secure your entries. You could do this with encrypted ID cards, mobile credentials, or even biometric authentication through fingerprint or facial recognition. By solely giving access to workspaces to particular staff members, there will be more accountability if something goes missing or breaks. Cloud-based software is recommended for access control because it offers greater flexibility than on-premises servers. Any maintenance updates can be performed remotely, so you don’t have to call someone in to make the fixes. This means less downtime for your security system.
Keep your customers and team safe by protecting your facility. It’s time to integrate your security systems so that you have a more future-proofed and complete view of where your business stands. Get your incident response time up with a stricter hold on your physical infrastructure. These are a couple of major ways that your small or medium business can reap the advantages of physical security inspections by managed IT service providers.
More likely than not, your business is going to grow over time. Much like with the rest of your IT infrastructure, you need to make sure that your physical security is scalable. To achieve this, managed IT service providers can get you set up with flexible cloud-based systems. When your data is stored within the cloud ecosystem, you have less vulnerable hardware on hand to deal with. Traditionally, security applications have been located on hardware. But, with remote working becoming the norm in recent years, adapting your technology in this way can be beneficial on many levels.
Ask yourself: Is my intrusion detection system (IDS) functioning properly? That is to say, are all of your physical security technologies working together and responding to threats effectively? Simply put, they should be, so that you successfully prevent unauthorized entry every time. According to Security Today, 20% of surveyed businesses claimed that they had experienced more physical security incidents in 2020 than in 2019. 40% of them said that they had to improve their strategy. Once again, cloud-based access control systems give you a more proactive way to lead security measures and can be a real game-changer.
You shouldn’t rely on your managed IT service providers to handle all of your security initiatives. There are many ways for your team to improve security planning. Determine who is going to be responsible for what and perform security awareness training so that everyone is on the same page. From there, make sure that everyone is following these two best practice protocols.
Make sure that your employees know how to delete sensitive information from your systems. This needs to happen before you can get rid of anything, including computers, removable media, and mobile devices. Deleting files from your desktop doesn’t do anything for you. Even if you delete them from your Trash or Recycle Bin folder, they still reside in your system. You have to permanently remove the data. Also, don’t forget to make backups of any files you could need in the future because, once you have gone through the process, you won’t be able to use a specialized program to recover them.
You shouldn’t stop your security measures at just having passwords. Even if you think your password is great, there is always the risk that someone could crack it. For that reason, you need extra roadblocks to keep out intruders. With multi-factor authentication (MFA), someone who is trying to get into your systems or workspace without authorization is significantly less likely to be able to. This is on account of you receiving a code on a separate device when someone tries to log in. It is simple to implement MFA, and it is a highly effective IT solution.
Centre Technologies offers routine physical inspections in our Fully Managed IT Security Package. Managed IT service providers who do this recognize the importance of security in all aspects of your business. It’s time to determine your risk level and combat the real-world threats you face. Let us know if your business requires unlimited on-site support.