How to Monitor Physical Security Breaches

An unfortunate reality of modern workplaces that we’re confronted with today is security breaches. Whether this means unwanted outsiders gaining access to the office, or employees themselves being careless or intentionally malicious, security breaches are a serious issue that requires constant monitoring.

What are physical security breaches?

Traditionally, breaches are thought of in a very stereotypical way: A masked man picks your lock and steals your laptop and other valuables. However, defining all breaches by those terms is way too simplistic. In this Kisi guide, we cover a wide range of breaches you should be aware of, and basic ways to address them. Spoiler alert: Most of them involve employees of your own company!

How can physical security breaches be monitored?

In this section, rather than discussing the physical sensors or alarms that you can install in your space, we’ll focus more on the software, and how you can receive breach alerts as an office or IT administrator.

Traditional Methods

Traditionally, monitoring is done with some variation of a physical Security Operation Center (SOC), or a Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) software platform.

SOC

An SOC is a physical control room, usually equipped with some combination of monitors, screens, video cameras, and the like, where a professional can monitor all of the company’s security infrastructure. There are many guides out there for how to build a proper SOC, like this comprehensive one by Digital Guardian. However, guides like this represent outdated tech, having been outpaced by modern software methods.

PSIM

PSIM software platforms are more modern tools, as they are entirely online, and you can monitor all your systems from one interface that is usually well curated and has intuitive UI. Good PSIM tools allow you to collect all your data, store it, visualize it in intuitive ways to analyze it, and offer strong alert reporting tools. This guide by IFSEC contains a good overview of the tools. However, despite their apparent modernity, there are still even more cutting edge methods: Cloud-based systems.

Modern, Cloud-Based Tools

Both SOC and PSIM platforms operate on the assumption that someone is sitting in a dedicated room all day monitoring the appropriate screens. However, that’s not how many modern offices are run. They’re often more streamlined and agile, with more companies turning to things like coworking spaces rather than fixed offices, or even operating remotely. For these more flexible offices a more versatile tool is needed.

This is where cloud-based systems shine. In a cloud-based system, your physical security infrastructure is connected to the cloud, and you can access it from anywhere in the world with a laptop or even with an iOS or Android mobile app. An added advantage of this is the security software can send you cloud-based push notifications straight to your phone so that you can be aware at all times if your space is breached.

If you’re interested in learning more about how your access control and cloud-based infrastructure can benefit you in the case of an emergency, check out the course series on this page about physical security in emergencies.

How can you report physical security breaches?

There are two main types of reporting — regular monthly/quarterly reporting, or incident-based escalated reporting, when a security breach happens. All of this reporting will generally be received by outside agencies, by auditors in the case of the first one, or police/law enforcement officers in the case of the second. If you’d like to read more about these event exports and reports, check out the rest of this article series on the Kisi Academy!

Closing Thoughts

Physical security breaches are never fun, and can be seriously damaging for your business. However, with modern cloud-based reporting tools, you can be up to date on all your security infrastructure, and with modern data exporting and analysis tools, you can easily send the reports to the relevant authorities.