How To Get The Best Out Of Your Access Control System
For expert guidance on access control as well as your options with access control systems, consider the advice of the security experts at Jay30. We are Southern Ontario’s leading access control system installers.
While it continues to stretch our imagination on what is possible, technology cannot cure every social ill. To get the best out of your access control system, it is essential that you establish a set of best practices or guidelines that users must abide by.
Best practices guide users on what actions to take in specific scenarios. In this case, they will also help you to maximize the benefits of installing an access control system.
If users do not follow the same recommended course of action when responding to specific threat scenarios, even the best access control system can’t keep your facility safe from unauthorized access.
5 Access Control System Best Practices That Improve Building Security
Working out your own access control best practices will help you ensure your access control system works smoothly and efficiently. These guidelines will help you plug access holes that your installed access control system cannot plug.
1. The fewer authorized users you have, the better
Access control works on the theory that by limiting the number of people who can enter a building, you minimize the risk of unauthorized visits. By the same assumption, the fewer authorized users there are the easier it is to manage access users access credentials and the access control system as a whole.
Beyond the main entrance to your building, you want to have stricter control over what people do once inside the building. If a person does not need access to the warehouse, for example, don’t give it to them. It does not matter that they hold a senior position in the company. A senior manager is as likely as anyone to steal sensitive data if they have the right incentive.
2. Train your staff on how to use your access control system
It is easy to neglect and assume every user will know what to do, but untrained users can render your access control system ineffectual. There should be separate training for the administrators and users of the system to ensure the right access levels are set and that users know how to use their access credentials securely.
Just as important is for users of the access control system to know the procedures to follow in specific threat scenarios, like when they lose their access card. Make sure your access control policy and procedures are as simple as possible to understand and access for all users. Use simple language when writing them.
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3. Choose a layered authentication system
Despite your best efforts to train your staff, some of them may turn rogue. Cases abound where employees have sold access information for money. Layering authentication makes it difficult for people to use illegally obtained access cards, for example, because the system would require them to also scan their fingerprint to be sure they are who they claim to be.
When layered authentication is in use, one layer will help plug the vulnerabilities of another. It makes for a more secure access control system that shields the building from access breaches perpetrated from within and outside your organization.
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4. Enforce a strict policy against tailgating
An access control system only keeps out unauthorized visitors if its users use it responsibly. For example, what is the point of installing one when users consciously or carelessly allow tailgating?
Holding up the door for someone behind you to enter without swiping their own access card isn’t a polite act. It should constitute abuse of the access control system. There should be a strict policy against it.
For the access control system to achieve its security aims, every user must use their assigned access credentials at all times. If some don’t, it becomes difficult to establish who was where when an access breach or theft occurred in the building.
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5. Institute periodic access reviews
Periodically auditing your access control needs against the capabilities of your access control system helps you to stay ahead of the ever-evolving security threats. To determine if the system still works as installed, make sure it is regularly tested by a professional technician.
If the system or the technology it runs on no longer meets your requirements, you should consider upgrading. The review effort should also entail going over your list of authorized users to determine if there aren’t any whose access levels must be changed or revoked entirely.
As a best practice, your access control system must integrate with your human resources software so terminated employees can have their access credentials automatically revoked. Access credentials must also be automatically voided after a certain period of inactivity.
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We are Southern Ontario’s leading access control system installers.
For expert guidance on access control as well as your options with access control systems, consider the advice of the security experts at Jay30.
