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Chapter 6: Physical Security
✓ Do door hinges on the outside make it easy for intruders to unhook them?
✓ Are doors, windows, and other entry points wired to an alarm system?
✓ Are there drop ceilings with tiles that can be pushed up? Are the walls
slab-to-slab? If not, someone could easily scale walls, bypassing any
door or window access controls.
Countermeasures
Many physical security countermeasures for building vulnerabilities might
require other maintenance, construction, or operations experts. If building
infrastructure is not your forte, you can hire outside experts during the
design, assessment, and retrofitting stages to ensure that you have adequate
controls. Here are some of the best ways to solidify building security:
✓ Strong doors and locks
✓ Windowless walls around data centers
✓ A continuously monitored alarm system with network-based cameras
located at all access points
✓ Lighting (especially around entry and exit points)
✓ Mantraps and sallyports that allow only one person at a time to pass
through a door
✓ Fences (with barbed wire or razor wire)
Utilities
You must consider building and data center utilities, such as power, water,
generators, and fire suppression, when assessing physical security. These
utilities can help fight off such incidents as fire and keep other access controls
running during a power loss. They can also be used against you if an
intruder enters the building.
Attack points
Intruders often exploit utility-related vulnerabilities. Consider the following
attack points, which are commonly overlooked:
✓ Is power-protection equipment (surge protectors, UPSs, and generators)
in place? How easily accessible are the on/off switches on these devices?
Can an intruder walk in and flip a switch? Can an intruder simply scale a
wood fence or cut off a simple lock and access critical equipment?
✓ When the power fails, what happens to physical security mechanisms?
Do they fail open, allowing anyone through, or fail closed, keeping everyone
in or out until the power is restored?
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