The Importance Of Physical Security

Security in any company is vital for it to success. Whether that is physical or technical security, each plays a part in ensuring important data is in the wrong hands. Key physical security may also be needed when dealing with critical physical environment issues. These measures can help prepare a company looking to protect their computing facilities from natural and man-made events. Whitman (2015) describes physical security as the protection of physical items, objects, or areas from unauthorized access. Not only is this defined but Whitman (2015) also lists seven major sources of physical loss. They are extreme temperature, for example heat or cold. Next is a gas, which may be war gases, commercial vapors, humid or dry air, and suspended

Many users are already subject to video monitoring cameras that are concealed by silver globes attached to ceilings of many retail stores. On top of that, many cameras are attached to VCRs and related machinery that capture video feed. Electronic monitoring includes closed-circuit television (CCT) systems. Some of these systems collect a continuous feed, while others rotate input from a number of cameras. Basically, this is allowing the system to sample each area in turn. However, there are drawbacks to using this system. The main issue being is that they are passive and do not prevent access or prohibit activity. Another drawback is that people must view the video output manually because there is no intelligent systems capable of reliably evaluating a video feed currently in existence. In order for security to determine if there was unauthorized activity, they must constantly review the information in real time or review the information collected in the video recordings. This reason alone is why CCT is more often used for evidence collection after a break-in than as a detection instrument (Whitman, 2015

Fires account for more property damage, personal injury, and death than any other threat to physical security. Fire suppression systems typically work by denying an environment one of the three requirements for a fire to burn. These are temperature, fuel and oxygen. The fire detection systems also assist with denying these variables by the quick detection of fires. Fire detection systems fall into two general categories, the first being manual and the other being automatic. Manual, of course, requires human response such as calling the fire department and manually activating the fire alarms. There are three basic types of fire detection systems. Thermal detection systems contain sophisticated heat sensors that can detect heat at a specific temperature or a rapid rise in heat where both will trigger an alarm. Smoke detection systems are the most common means of detecting a fire. Required in most building codes for residential and commercial buildings, these systems can detect smoke in three ways. Starting with photoelectric sensors, smoke is detected using infrared beams that activate the alarms when interrupted. One detection system call Ionization sensor contains a small amount of radioactive material within a detection chamber, that when certain by-products of combustion enter the chamber, they change the level of