How to improve physical security of your property
The physical nature of security is all about deterring the potential intruder from gaining access to your property. It is crucial as the first line of defense against intruders or burglars or any anyone undesirable guests. You will aim to maximise the preventions of physical access to or theft from belongings or property.
This can be as simple as having secure locks on all of your outside facing doors/windows to security screens or high security gates. Security advisors have also used materials that are less suitable like wood for boarding up windows. It may be a cheaper option, but in the long run it will degrade quicker and be easier to penetrate after a while.
There are several layers or tiers of physical security that you should be considering when reviewing your home security. It may include objects designed to delay an intruder from house breaking, for example: an alarm system, CCTV or a decent amount of lighting. Two main layers of physical security are:
- Environmental Design
- Mechanical Security
Environmental Design
Environmental design is the initial layer of physical security for a property and is generally more for commercial properties but could be employed in a residential dwelling. These can include deterrents such as barbed wire, spikes installed on top of walls, concrete barriers, metal barriers and warning signs. Concrete barriers by shear weight are not easy to pass or shift, and need to be installed and eventually removed by a professional security company.
Mechanical Security
This layer is concerned with mechanical aspects of security. These include security doors, gates, locks, windows. The approved method of access through the gate or door can be accessed via metal key or electronic key or keycard. In bigger organisations, door access management is better with the use of an electronic as opposed to monitoring the usage of a physical key. Another area gaining interest in the realm of physical security is biometric access control, such as thumb print readers.
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