Commercial properties including office spaces have been a major target of criminals. In a lot of cases, there are many more valuables to be found in office spaces. Add to that the threat of targeted burglary to steal specific equipment, and you have a target which criminals would be more than happy to target. In addition, you also have to consider the value of important trade secrets and confidential client data stored in the office. Hence, you must take office security very seriously. Here are two important considerations while planning your office security layout.
Balancing security with the added inconvenience
These two aspects – security and convenience – are almost at loggerheads with each other. If you increase one, other goes down. As a very simple example, if you add a lock to a door, the employee who has to use the door must always carry the key. If he forgets the key, he will have to go get it since the door will not be inaccessible. If the key is lost, you will need to call a locksmith. This adds a degree of inconvenience. However, the most convenient is not having a door at all. But this provides no security. In practical aspects, this is often seen in aspects of access control. The more restricted access you have, the more inconvenient it is for employees. Technologies such as RFID access pass and centralised control can help reduce some of the inconvenience introduced by these measures. In digital access control, this is seen when the system needs a highly complicated password or a multi-factor authentication. Remembering complicated password and changing it every month is more inconvenient than a simple permanent password, which, however, is a poor security practice.
Focusing on both physical and digital security
Before offices were based on networks of computers, the only things that you would need to worry about were physical objects. However, today often times the data stored in offices is worth more in the wrong hands than the physical infrastructure itself. Hence, a comprehensive security system would include CCTV and access control for physical security and strong encryption and firewall for digital security as well.