Protecting Your Building
Against a Biological Event
Although the threat of a harmful biological agent being released in or around most buildings is small, recent terrorist activity in the United States and abroad has forced us to at least acknowledge this as a viable terrorist alternative.
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Service Maintenance Program:
The Preventative Maintenance Inspection
Current electronic security systems are very reliable with low failure rates, fewer components with moving parts, solid state image devices that retain their integrity for years and card readers that require no maintenance.
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Traffic Studies
The past few years have seen a focused effort to raise the overall security posture of private and federal facilities alike. A key factor in security sites against high-level threats is controlling vehicular access.
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U.S. Agriculture: A Weak Link
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Centers, enormous amounts of government and private sector resources have been directed towards biological terrorism detection and prevention.
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We Need to Focus on Training
I was recently reminded of the changes that our industry has undergone over the last decade as I was reviewing some older, archived design documents. It used to be that a complicated access control system consisted of a 386SX PC running Windows 3.x software monitoring 20 to 30 card readers around a three or four building corporate campus.
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Chemical Agent Terrorism:
A Refresher in Strategic Approach
It wasn’t but five years ago that the acronym WMD, which of course we all today know stands for weapons of mass destruction, would have been unfamiliar to most of the population.
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Security System Design
The key to a security survey is to document existing conditions, identify security-related deficiencies and develop associated upgrade recommendations. These recommendations are normally accompanied by budgetary cost estimates, a crucial piece of information in the planning process.
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ESS Security Surveys: A Foundational Step
Security site surveys are often prompted by a variety of factors including construction of new facilities, initiation of a new program, or to respond to an increased threat. Very simply, regardless of the primary instigating factor, the main purpose of a site survey is to ensure that the security program currently in place provides an adequate level of protection to the specific assets.
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Definitive Design
One of the most important elements in an efficient enterprise electronic security program is the identification and/or development of a best in class design capability. |
Development of Security
Program Standards: Part II
Risk often follows the size of the facility: bigger facilities generally represent more critical corporate assets and therefore constitute greater risks. An access control system should be implemented at those facilities just above the subjectively defined small facility (lowest risk) level. |
Watch That Bottom Line!
General Guidelines for Cost Estimating
Imagine your company has decided a portion (or all) of its current security measures need to be enhanced, upgraded or replaced and has tasked you with completing the project. Your first step should be to plan the scope of the project and determine what you envision the end result to be.
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Development of Security
Program Standards: Part I
Standards are always tough to define as they never precisely fit the problem at hand. My point is that it is easier to deal with the 5-10% of the problem that is unique at each facility instead of starting from scratch for each facility. Developing standards forces you to ask some basic but yet difficult questions.
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Don’t Turn the Installation Contractor Loose!
A common practice in today’s security industry is to turn the installation contractor loose with a minimum design criteria package. The expectation is that the contractor can then proceed to fulfill the client’s design intent.
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Security Audits:
They Must Be Done
The word audit seems to carry reprehensible connotations in many areas of life. Our industry is no different. But the fact of the matter is we rarely come across a facility that meets the minimum-security standards of the owning organization.
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