Take a Walking Tour of Your Company's Security

A change in perspective can help you find security holes you've missed. Get out of your office and give your defenses a fresh look.

By Derek Slater

December 28, 2009 — CSO —

The last week of the year might provide you with a little time for a change of perspective. When's the last time you took a walking tour of your company? Do you have the right security measures in place at each stop?

Here's a roundup of articles providing indepth strategies for assessing and strengthening security at the points listed below:

• Point of sale. Cash, cards, inventory and customer data intersect at the point of sale. Are your registers, networks and procedures up to snuff?
  
• Call centers. For many companies, call centers are the heartbeat of the business. You'll need a balance of physical and digital security measures to protect customers and employees alike.
  
• Data center. Mantraps, access control systems, bollards, surveillance and more: 19 ways to build physical security into your data center.
  
• Offsite data or paper record storage. Protect sensitive records on their way to storage and once they get there.
  
• Loading docks. 10 steps to protect loading docks where goods flow into and out of your company.
  
• Mailroom. Are your employees trained to recognize a suspicious package? Do you have a protocol for this contingency?
  
• Multitenant buildings. Have offices or stores in shared space? When you're colocated with other businesses, good neighbors make good fences. Here are key considerations for multitenant facility security.
  
• Headquarters. Everything from facility design to badge policies plays a role in keeping your buildings secure. And of course, you should take a hard look at your employees: Are they on their toes to prevent social engineering? And can they pass the clean desk test?
  
• Mahogany row. Six things you should know about executive protection.
  

Want more ideas? We took a high-speed look at various defenses for protecting trade secrets in Joe's fictional office.

Read more about data protection in CSOonline's Data Protection section.

Other stories by Derek Slater

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