High Value Items

Welcome to the fourth blog in the Business Security Guide series. If you missed the last blog about Access Control, you can read it here.

Unless you have had your head under a bushel these last few years, then I am sure you are aware that businesses are being targeted by criminal activity all the time. Be that burglars, vandals or the more modern phenomena cybercriminals, it is happening constantly. In fact, last year a Government survey stated that just under a half of businesses had become victim of some form of cybercrime!

What would happen if your business was targeted by criminals. Would they be able to affect your business? If they were able to steal or restrict access to what your business needs most to run, would your business be able to deal with such an impact? Would your business survive?

This blog is all about protecting those high value assets within your business. Not necessarily those assets that are worth a lot of money, although they can be included, but the assets that are critical to your business operations. We have put together some advice on getting it right.

Identifying your Assets

If your business is anything like mine, then there is a lot of activity going on just to make it run. Most of this activity supports what your business does but is not necessarily your core business function. The key to identifying your key assets is to find those assets in your business that are essential to producing your products or services.

Keep High Value Items out of Sight

Every business has high value items, it’s a fact. But not every man and his dog need to know what they are or where they are kept. So, keep it on a need to know basis. Only let those that really need to know of their existence know about them.

Keep them out of sight whenever possible and ensure they are locked away securely when they are not needed.

Security in Depth

We have often said that the most effective way of protecting a business is to use a multi layered security system. The strengths of one layer overlap the weakness of the next. This is also true for protecting your high value items. Ensure that any intruder must pass through multiple layers of security before gaining access.

The Strongest Barrier should be Closest to the Target

Often, once a person has gained access to the building they have access to the whole business, including the high value items. This is a mistake and the main reason businesses fall victim to the ‘insider threat’. The correct approach is to install stricter controls as you get closer to the high value items. So that the further a person gets into a business the more difficult it is to gain access.

Early Detection

No security system is 100% secure, so the best security systems are those that give the earliest detection. By detection, I mean some form of an alarm that will notify you that someone is gaining unauthorised access. Try to install your detection as far away as practical from where your high value items are stored. This will give you the greatest amount of time to respond to any incident.

Protecting your business effectively is not about spending a lot of money, it is about spending the right amount of money in the right place. Protecting your high value items, or business critical assets, is a step towards that ideal. Remember, think about what is important to your business and put your strongest security controls around them. Keep your high value assets away from prying eyes and try to install your detection as far away from them as practical.

I hope you found this blog of interest. As always, if you need any help then please get in touch, we are here to help.

Our next blog in the series is all about using CCTV, you can read it right here.

Luke