Network and Data Security of the Building - Essay Example

The issue of security is of critical significance and look forward to helping arrest the challenge of physical insecurity. Below is the explanation of how the above factor could help curb the security problem.
Crime Prevention through environmental design involves a combination of psychological and physical aspects of a security situation and then considering the two simultaneously. Security in areas says public zones, private or semi-private zones are best achieved by the use of physical barriers like small fences or well-planned flower beds around them. These barriers along with some other symbolic barriers could also be used around sensitive data rooms to deter the entry of people into these rooms. The architectural designs have shown great efficiency in discouraging acts of crime in facilities. (Mlakar, 1999)
Surveillance. Surveillance in any building or facility is very crucial as it helps to monitor people within it. The people may include the employees, visitors who, in this case, are strangers or even the security persons on the ground. Surveillance can assist to closely monitor individuals with a lot of secrecy and thus it’s recommended to install these devices at places where people cannot recognize them easily. This way, acts of crime will be identified easily as the individuals will be caught unawares. Monitoring becomes even most critical with an increased number of employees.
Before any procurement of Surveillance devices to be used in a given facility, some factors have to be considered. They may include;
• Surveillance methods the facility intends to employ. These may be a formal or informal method, and the selection will depend on the likes of the facility.
• The condition of the lighting of the Surveillance cameras. Different Surveillance devices will require different conditions of lighting in terms of brightness and or intensity.
• The nature of the landscape. Of interest here is whether the landscape is blocking the cameras or not.
• Range of the cameras needed. Different cameras have differing ranges over which an image can be viewed clearly.
• The number of cameras needed. This is determined by the size of the facility or the area under which monitoring is to do.
• Mode of operation of the technology embedded in the device, whether wired or wireless.
Monitoring cannot be accomplished in the darkness. Lighting, therefore, becomes another factor that goes hand in hand with surveillance. The brightness, intensity, and the number of lighting devices in and within a facility becomes of critical importance. Well-spaced and glowing office lighting show well on cameras. Therefore, lighting offers the basis for any security situation in any given place.
Outdoor barriers in a facility help to delay, obstruct, and or prevents cases of thefts and other negative security situation. The barriers include fences, perimeter barriers, and gates among other obstacles that prevent access to persons to some given areas.
They act as a deterrent to insecurity and thus very important because;
• They act and offer the first line of defence. Theft delays and obstructions help to achieve the defence.
• They provide boundaries and limits to which people are limited to going beyond and through. They thus help to control access to people to some points with ease.
The rooms and areas in the building that are not in use at a given time should always be locked. Locking helps protect the dissemination of private and confidential information in documents about a given facility that could be critical if on the hands of strangers. The keys to the locks should only be given to some selected trusted individuals to avoid the cheating that would result in frauds. The various types of locks include spring latch bolts, deadbolt locks, slip bolt latch, padlock, and knob locks.
Very confidential documents and papers should be stored in safes, and the safes locked with some safe codes.
The codes should regularly be changed and only be disclosed to certain persons.
Alarms in a building are important in informing or warning the people within it of a situation that requires their attention. With alarms, whenever an insecurity situation occurs, it’s handled faster and more efficiently contrary to if they were not installed. They also prevent prolonged damage that could occur with their absence. Alarms should be centralized within the building so that a faster response can be received. Various alarm systems could include; Passive infrared, ultrasonic, photoelectric, and glass break detectors.
Another way to curb insecurity could be controlling the entry of people into a building. The employees could use a lanyard and a badge identifying their identity. They could also use a keypad system.
Guards at the gates would help keep them locked and allow entry of only the peoples whose identity is known into the building. Names of strangers could be noted down in visitor books of record. Other sophisticated systems may use fingerprint or palm scanning devices to identify people within the building.
The facility can use firewalls, encrypted programs, and other different software that help to protect its data. Electronic data and documents could be locked down at all times when not in use. The closure could reduce at all costs chances of people having access to them.
In conclusion, in my humble opinion, the application of the above recommendations in the facility would assure total security.