Physical Security Methods

Physical Security Methods

• Physical security methods will make just as much difference in protecting our computers and data from harm as any firewall, anti-virus or user authentication system.

• The first step in securing our IT systems and the data they store is simply to stop malicious users from being able to gain physical access to them.

Site Security Locks

• Locking the buildings and the rooms where our IT systems are contained is very important.

• In particular, your server room should be well secured by lock and key, though all rooms with IT equipment should be locked when not in use.

• If someone were to gain access to your server room they would be able to cause huge damage.

Card Entry & Biometrics

• Rather than a key, rooms can be restricted through swipe cards or biometrics.

• Using a card entry or biometrics system allows you to identify each person that has entered a room.

• This helps identify suspicious behaviour or identify the person who attacked a system.

Closed-Circuit Television & Security Staff

• Surveillance is an important part of protecting our IT systems.

• CCTV is great for this as it is difficult to tamper with and provides visual evidence of whoever has accessed a room.

• Security personnel is another great tool in performing surveillance.

• Security staff will often patrol the entrances, and different areas to check if people are trying to enter, monitor the CCTV cameras, check identification of employees and forcefully stop people from entering if needed.

Alarms

• These could be door/window alarms to detect when they have been forced open or motion sensor alarms triggered when an individual is within a room.

• Using a card entry or biometrics system allows you to identify each person that has entered a room.

• This is particularly useful for 24-hour monitoring as the alarms can be connected to a local security company who will quickly come to the business premises.

Protected Cabling & Cabinets

• When an IT company has a lot of exposed cabling, then they are running the risk of an intruder cutting or attaching a device to the cabling.

• Protected cabling is wrapped in extra layers, rather than just rubber. The additional layers can include a woven wire mesh layer which makes it harder to cut into.

• Locked cabinets should be used for small devices that are easily portable when they are not in use.

Backup Procedures

• Without a backup, many businesses will fail if they suffer a major data loss.

• So, should anything damage our business data we will need a quick method of recovering that data.

• There are a variety of different backup procedures that we can follow, and different locations to store the backups in.

Backup Procedures

• Full Backup – A complete backup of all your data.

• Incremental Backup – A backup of only the data that has changed since the previous backup.

• Differential Backup – A mixture of the previous two. A business takes a full backup and then takes backups of data that has changed since that last full backup.

Backup Locations

• On-Site Backups – stored in the same building as the original data.

• Off-Site Backups – stored in a different location as the original data.

• Cloud Backups – much like off-site backups your data will be stored in a different location but will be connected via the internet.