A corporate security plan doesn’t just reduce the risk of theft – it can also improve safety conditions for your employees and even keep you from being held liable were a security incident to take place. These days, a well-thought-out security plan is absolutely essential for businesses big and small that wish to protect their employees and their own future. But which tactics should be considered corporate security requirements? A big picture approach will keep your company safe in all areas.
In today’s world, corporate security requires a two-pronged approach – one that allows managers, staff, and security personnel to mitigate both physical and digital threats.
Physical security
Physical security has always been a point of emphasis in the workplace – even many decades ago, factories would typically have workplace rules designed to prevent injury and theft. These policies ultimately benefited both workers and their employers. However, today’s corporate security plans need to take a more comprehensive approach to improve workplace conditions and to avoid liability.
The physical security plan should start by establishing rules for employees and other site visitors. For example, clearly communicating your policies regarding firearms and other weapons is a must. However, a safe workplace should also have rules in place regarding verbal threats and other forms of harassment. If these types of behaviours are allowed to go unchecked, acts of physical violence will likely occur later on. A smart security plan will make it easy for victims to report such incidents.
Of course, much of the corporate security plan should focus on the technologies and tactics that will be used to prevent theft and other physical threats. While making a rule that employees need to lock doors leading outside is great, if you don’t take any other physical security actions, your facility will almost certainly be victimized.
Conduct a risk analysis of your property to determine which areas present the greatest risk, and then take the necessary steps to mitigate the problem. This might include installing keypad entries to certain areas or hiring a security guard team to patrol your facility. Carefully accounting for all likely threats will keep employees and valuable items safe.
Cybersecurity
In an increasingly digital society, it isn’t enough to focus on physical security alone. Your corporate security plans must also address cyber threats — particularly, the theft of sensitive data. As with your physical security plans, the best policies start by establishing clear rules for employees. Examples of cybersecurity rules might include not inserting a personal USB drive in a company computer or not opening email attachments from unknown senders. After all, exposure to a single malicious file is often enough to compromise an entire computer network.
Once again, taking system-level actions to help prevent external threats will be much more effective than giving your employees a set of rules — especially since cybersecurity rules are more likely to be broken.
As part of your corporate security requirements, your company should install antivirus software and email filtering tools to limit the potential impact of malware and other digital security threats. Even something as simple as eliminating spam emails can prevent the accidental installation of a virus on your corporate network.
In some cases, physical security measures can also help prevent digital data theft – for example, a security screening could ensure that employees don’t sneak USB drives containing confidential data out of the building.
Conclusion
Physical and cyber security are not two completely separate entities – rather, they should be viewed as parallel parts of your overall security plan. By establishing a clear code of conduct and then reinforcing these behaviors with your own security measures, you can create a safe work environment where employees and visitors have peace of mind. Most importantly, you can better guarantee physical safety and data security so that you don’t have to worry about costly losses.
