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Learning Topic

Physical Security Planning

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Organizations can implement the best authentication scheme in the world, develop the

best access control, and install firewalls and intrusion prevention. However, their security

cannot be complete without implementing physical security.

The goal of physical security is to protect the actual hardware and networking

components that store and transmit information resources. This involves taking measures

to prevent unauthorized access to the organization’s assets. These measures include the

following:

Locked doors: It may seem obvious, but security is useless if an intruder can simply

walk in and physically remove a device. High-value information assets should be

secured in a location with limited access.

1/20/22, 10:30 AM Physical Security Planning

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Physical intrusion detection: High-value information assets should be monitored

through security cameras and other means to detect unauthorized access to the

physical locations.

Secured equipment: Devices should be physically locked down. One employee’s hard

drive could contain all your customer information.

Environmental monitoring: An organization’s servers and other high-value

equipment should always be kept in a room that is monitored for temperature,

humidity, airflow, and unauthorized access. The risk of a server failure rises when

these factors go out of a specified range.

Employee awareness and training: Physical security requires educating all employees

on organizational policies and best practices related to security, such as upholding

visitor policies, workstation locking, device encryption, following policies related to

traveling with work devices, and reporting suspicious activity (Kostadinov, 2017).

References

Kostadinov, D. (2017). Tips for managing physical security. Infosec.

https://resources.infosecinstitute.com/category/enterprise/securityawareness/managing-

physical-security/#gref).

Licenses and Attributions

Chapter 6: Information Systems Security

(https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?

url=https%3A%2F%2Fbus206.pressbooks.com%2Fchapter%2Fchapter-6-information-

systems-

security%2F&data=02%7C01%7CLaureece.Hymes%40umgc.edu%7C021ab60fe3124369

d3d408d777ff7956%7C704ce3d6a4bf4e098516d52840c9f7a9%7C0%7C0%7C6371098

11444338960&sdata=eY7sjTu8vdpC2H8e0xIfZjklLf94Uwwl1rcghVNj2ms%3D&reserv

ed=0) from Information Systems for Business and Beyond by David T. Bourgeois is

available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

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© 2014, David T. Bourgeois. UMGC has modified this work and it is available under the

original license.

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