Assessing Your Business’s Security Requirements
Properly assessing your security strengths and weaknesses allows you to accordingly allocate resources where they are necessary and avoid missing any company-specific vulnerabilities. Carrying out thorough internal risk assessments will also allow you to understand your business with a new pair of eyes and how others may think to target it.
There are 3 main areas for risk assessments of your company that should be comprehensively covered. Here is a brief summary of what we recommend considering.
1. People Assets Risk Assessment.
- This includes but is not limited to your employees. It also includes anyone who enters the premises such as customers, clients, contractors etc.
- You are responsible as a company for making sure all people assets are kept safe and secure.
- Whilst carrying out a people assets risk assessment you should be looking at things like:
Your CCTV coverage and any blind spots
Your evacuation strategy should an emergency arise
Your staff’s training in dealing with breaches of security or aggressive/ problematic individuals
Your employee’s fire and first aid training
Making sure your fire and security systems are regularly tested and in full working order
Who has access to the building, when, and how is this monitored.
2. Property Assets Risk Assessment.
- This includes things owned by the company such as buildings, machinery, equipment, and stock.
- On the whole, this tends to be what is targeted when we look at crime related to businesses i.e. burglary.
- This risk assessment should include things like:
Security of external doors and window
CCTV coverage and visibility of the cameras
Presence or lack of security lighting
What can be seen from the outside of the premises
If machinery is properly secured to the floor
How frequently money is banked and removed from the facility
If all keys are accounted for and if you use a professional keyholding service
Use of access control systems such as key cards, fobs, and codes.
3. Informational Assets Risk Assessment.
- This includes financial, employee, and business records as well as computer systems and any other valuable or sensitive information and data you may store on site.
- This is a growing target for theft as it can be very valuable and is often not as well secured as physical/property assets.
- When completing your Informational Assets Risk Assessment you should acknowledge:
If you use locking filing cabinets, and where those keys are stored
Who is allowed to access such documentation and are strict measures in place to ensure only these authorised personnel can
Are passwords highly secure and being frequently changed
Is data backed up in a secure offsite location
Are up to date cybersecurity measures in place, including using firewalls and antivirus software
Are employees complying with up to date data protection measures such as GDPR
Are there forms/ relevant systems in place to record and keep track of when documentation is checked out/ back in and by who?
It is important to note that none of the above are comprehensive lists and you must take the time to make sure you are properly covering all fronts for your business. Every company is unique and therefore there is no blueprint for this.
If you are looking to hire security to assist in the process of securing your business there are further considerations that may be useful in isolating what it is that you need. A few easy questions to get you started include:
- Are you after a discrete solution or a more obvious deterrent?
- How large is the area that needs to be covered?
- Do you need 24/7 solutions or just during opening/ closed hours?
- Are you after on-site assistance or remote monitoring?
Starting with an understanding of what you are looking for will help you in making sure your chosen company can offer what you need. FFA Security Group can help with all of the above solutions plus many more. Your business's safety and security is always our top priority and we can help you put together a plan to ensure this. Get in touch today.
