Welcome to the second installment of our S.T.A.R.T.S.S.® blog series!
In this series, we’re taking a deeper look at our S.T.A.R.T.S.S Decision Methodology, which provides a framework for choosing the best security entrance and provider to meet your specific physical security needs. To see the introduction to the S.T.A.R.T.S.S. series, please click here.
Today’s topic: Security
Welcome to our S.T.A.R.T.S.S.® blog series! We have decided to create a series dedicated to helping customers choose the best security entrances to meet long-term security and organizational needs and avoid costly mistakes.
Over the next several months, we will write about the eight key factors to consider, and provide details about each to guide you in your decisions. These eight factors are the building blocks of the Boon Edam S.T.A.R.T.S.S. Decision Methodology, which we use every day when helping customers choose and install the security entrances that will best meet their needs, support their objectives, and deliver maximum ROI.
It can be a big decision to pull technicians out of the field for a one or two day training session, but an educated technician is an efficient technician - and one you'll get more ROI out of. Instead of lingering on a job site scratching their heads, your technicians will be on to the next job and making more money.
You’ve just held open the front door of your office building to a well-dressed person who was fumbling for their access card. You’re feeling pleased about the good deed that you just did. Except – in reality, you just let in a hacker who will soon bypass your company’s network security and gain easy access to your organization’s most valuable electronic assets.
BIM, or Building Information Modeling, has been growing in popularity within the building construction and architectural sectors. It is regarded as the superior alternative to 3D CAD modeling. Working in the BIM environment provide building project teams to collaborate in one, single place – all working with the same facts, data and visuals from the entire lifecycle of a building. This then will serve as the blueprint for everyone involved, in whatever capacity, to bring the project to life from conception to maintenance.
Creating a revolving door specification (“spec” for short) can be extremely challenging. Many architects and specifiers today utilize online specification services for identifying the revolving doors they want to incorporate into their projects. These online sites often provide “master” revolving door specs that bundle numerous different types of doors into a single 20+ page document. The architect or specifier has to know what to keep and what to delete. This process creates the potential for errors.
Security professionals build their security plans around compliance to a number of industry-specific regulations. Whether an organization is required to adhere to the standards of PCI, NERC, HIPAA, or FSMA, the concerns are the same. How does a company balance the added costs necessary to comply with the regulations, with the high fines and lost time that comes with not complying? Security compliance isn’t a cut and dry topic. Regulations, as written, are to interpretation; when it comes to security entrances, it’s all in the “eye of the beholder.” A security manager may think he has the necessary precautions in place, but after a breach has occurred, would a court of law agree that the company did everything possible to prevent it? In several cases, the answer has been “no” and hefty fines were imposed.
Airports have undoubtedly become high-risk environments that are routinely regulated by national and international legislation. Over time, the threat to global travel has increased, meaning that the likelihood of violations regarding international travel has become highly likely. Therefore, the need to build a flexible solution weighs heavily on those whose role it is to assess and evaluate the internal safety of an airport while still continuously addressing the needs of passengers, airport visitors and employees alike.
Not long ago, a Philadelphia office tower installed two optical turnstiles in their main lobby that matched the building’s aesthetics beautifully. After a few years, however, one of the turnstiles stopped working and a part had to be ordered from Europe—with downtime estimated at four weeks. With only two optical turnstiles in their lobby, having one out of service was unacceptable. The owner immediately began looking into replacing the turnstiles.
You’ve probably already done a ton of preparation to harden your organization against breaches. This could include creating firewalls on your network, applying network patches, establishing an information security policy, training your employees not to open phishing emails, implementing strong access control measures, setting up a strong password system, and more. Overall, you are feeling pretty good about your company’s cybersecurity strategies and overall cyber health. With all the work you’ve done, what could you still be missing?
