It’s no secret that we all rely on technology in our daily lives for a variety of purposes. One of the ways that technology can be extremely useful to us is at the office, making sure that our work environment is secure from any external threats.
Certain companies and organisations will require higher levels of security than others. If the question of security has been raised within your workplace and your security audit has determined that things are perhaps not as secure as you’d like them to be, find out below how you can tighten up your office security using technology!
Image Credit: vlauria (Flickr)
Alarm systems
The obvious starting point for office building security has to be an alarm system! Firms and other organisations all around the world benefit from alarm systems to detect when intruders attempt to gain access to their offices.
Thanks to technology, “silent” alarm systems can effectively protect your premises, so that if a break-in occurs, the security company responsible for monitoring the building can send operatives to investigate, and they can also alert the authorities too.
Access control
We don’t want to let any random stranger enter our premises uninvited, so it is imperative that we maintain access control systems.
Companies such as Tag Systems can install various access control systems, examples of which are as follows:
- Key fobs – simply hover a key fob over a “reader” to unlock a door;
- Smart cards – similar in operation to key fobs but they can also be swiped;
- Biometrics – retina scanning, fingerprint scanning and so forth;
- Physical access control – turnstiles, barriers, “mantraps”.
Surveillance
Implementing an access control system is great because it significantly decreases the risk of unauthorised persons from entering your premises, but how do you know whether the people that do enter your offices and buildings are who they claim to be?
The only way to know for sure is to monitor who goes in and out of your premises by setting up an appropriate surveillance system.
One of the most-common forms of surveillance is CCTV, which is short for “closed-circuit television”. In a nutshell, CCTV refers to the use of camera systems to monitor specific areas of a building such as entrances, corridors, rooms and the exterior perimeter.
When CCTV first became used on a widespread basis, the cameras were linked to a control room or “surveillance centre” nearby. Nowadays, one can set up wireless CCTV camera systems, which are great for applications such as building sites.
Modern CCTV systems can even comprise of IP cameras, which are essentially CCTV cameras connected to computer LAN (Local Area Network), offering the flexibility of remote monitoring via the network or even over the Internet.
Computer security
All modern computer operating systems offer users and system administrators the ability to set up mandatory security log-in systems, so that only specific individuals can connect to a company or organisation’s network.
Additionally, smart card access systems can also be implemented as an additional layer of security.
System administrators can also apply group policies to users, limiting their access to specific resources; for example, certain employees can be denied access to network shares used only by the finance or human resources department.
