Chapter 5: Physical and Environmental Security - Designing a Physical Security Program

To design a proper physical security program, all aspects of your physical surroundings should be surveyed and assessed. This goes for everything; an obvious example would be the construction material of walls. A more obscure or less obvious example would be the vehicle activity outside of the building. It is also very important to understand how a certain facility is used, identify potential vulnerabilities, and decide what the best ways are to protect against these vulnerabilities. For example, if you have a building that houses some of your company's servers in an area that has high burglary rates, it might be a good idea to have security systems within the actual building as well as security guards within the actual building. The person that is in charge of making sure an organization's physical assets are protected is known as the facility safety officer. A person in this position should understand what physical components make up a facility and discover the best ways to protect it while staying in compliance with regulations.