Physical security is important for your home, workplace, and assets. It’s not just about locks and alarms anymore! Nowadays, you need to take into account things like cybersecurity and natural disasters. But how do you know if your physical security needs are being met?
Here are eight steps to assess your security risks so you can find out what you need to adjust.
What is physical security?
Physical security is the protection of people and property from dangers such as terrorism, crime, fire, natural disasters, and other emergencies.
What is the importance of physical security?
Physical security is important for your home, workplace, and assets. Thieves are always looking to steal anything they can get their hands on. And with the recent increase in natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey, physical security needs to be taken into consideration. Nowadays, you need to take into account things like cybersecurity and natural disasters to ensure your safety.
Assessing your physical security risks
The first step to assessing your physical security risks is to make a list of what you value most. What are the most important things to you? Once you have this list, make a second list of what could happen if that thing were lost or stolen. It helps to put yourself in another person’s shoes and think about how they would feel if they experienced the same situation. Now, rank your list in order of which item would be most devastating for you should it be lost or stolen.
The second step is to assess the access points into your home or other property. This includes all doors, windows, gates, backdoors, sheds, garages, etc. You should know where all entrances are and how likely it is someone can gain unauthorized entry through them. The more points of entry there are available, the higher the risk level is for your physical security.
Thirdly, assess whether any doors or windows are unlocked at night or during work hours. If there are any open doors or windows that people can easily get into without causing much noise (for example: sliding patio door), then this poses a potential risk for you and your loved ones (and possessions) inside the property.
Fourthly, assess whether you have an alarm system installed on your property. This will help deter thieves from breaking in because they’ll know that there’s likely an alarm system installed on the property even if they didn’t see one when they attempted unauthorized entry before.
Fifthly (and related
Security measures to take
To assess your physical security risks, it’s important to take a holistic view of what’s happening around you. What are the sources of potential risk? How likely are they to happen? And what would be the consequences if they actually did happen?
For example, let’s look at cybersecurity. If you’re not taking any measures to protect your information, then that’s one area where you’re at risk. The consequences for not protecting your data can be huge. You could lose customer records or proprietary information, which could put your company out of business. Or maybe you’ve recently had some break-ins and want to find out how likely it is for them to happen again.
To start finding risk areas, ask yourself these three questions:
1) What are the sources of potential risk?
2) How likely are they to happen?
3) What will be the consequences if they do happen?
Conclusion
Now that you know how to assess your physical security risks, you’re ready to take the next step.
Make sure that you have a plan in place that will help mitigate your risks. This will allow you to take the proper steps should something happen. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. There are many professionals who can assess your physical security risks so you’ll know what you need to do to keep your business safe.
