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By Susan A. Brady
Security Dealer Magazine

Susan Brady: Continued concern about security threats has forced corporate America to take a closer look at security in the workplace. Businesses are realizing that the risk is very real and that steps must be taken to ensure everyone’s security. Please comment as to how access control plays a part in this process.

Tom Echols, Director Systems and Sales, Honeywell Integrated Security: Today’s corporations are utilizing managed access control systems as the key component of their overall security programs. Access control security management platforms allow corporations to monitor and manage personnel around the globe from anywhere in an enterprise. Observation of employees, contractors, visitors and even children at corporate-sponsored daycare facilities can all be consolidated into a single solution.

Steven Van Till, President and COO, Brivo Systems, LLC: When properly managed, access control keeps the “bad guys” out and lets the “good guys” in. That’s the first step in providing enhanced security, but this assumes you can always tell the bad guys from the good guys. That’s why an increasingly important function of access control is keeping records of events, and being able to correlate them with other security systems such as camera surveillance and photo ID databases. Coupled with offsite storage of such data or the use of a hosted security service—which guards against insider attacks on data systems—it should be possible for access control systems to play a valuable forensic role, even if their primary role—keeping the wrong people out—has been subverted.
Peter Boriskin, Director of Product Management - Access Control for Tyco Fire & Security: Access control is a vital part of workplace safety, it is the decision made on who can or cannot get in to a particular facility, parking garage, hospital, and airport. We see an increased need for organizations to tie their HR or ERP system to access, as they want to keep them synchronized without the requirement for human intervention.

John Petze, President & CEO of Privaris: An organization’s first line of defense is clearly physical access to the facility. Reasonable steps must be taken to ensure that only authorized personnel enter the facility. Doing so protects company assets and ensures the safety of employees, both of which have a direct bearing on the degree of financial risk to which the business is exposed. Though when talking about security in the corporate setting, access control should be redefined to include logical access ? securing access to computers, networks and applications ? because beyond “getting in the door” are the very real security risks related to the increasing number of employees that work from home, on the road, or who are accessing corporate IT assets and increasing amounts of sensitive data from external networks. Companies looking to implement new security systems, or upgrade existing systems, should take a serious look at the approaches available to address physical and logical access with a unified, or converged, strategy. It is now possible to implement a single credential identity verification system to control employees’ access to buildings and facilities, as well as to computers and networks, while at the same time simplifying and streamlining the user experience.

Martin Huddart, General Manager of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies, Schlage electronic security: In general, the corporate customer is paying more attention to the perimeter of their facilities and putting in more policies and technologies to control access at the outer perimeter. Typical technologies include online card access, integrated CCTV, barriers, turnstiles and even biometric identity verification.
We have seen an increase in interest for two factor authentication where a single card transaction is no longer sufficient to grant access—a PIN or biometric ensures that a lost or stolen card is not a weak link in the system. Corporate customers are also paying more attention to the processes that are used to manage and monitor the system so that their investments in products are maximized. Examples here are more robust visitor management processes and more oversight of who is allowed to issue credentials and change access rights.

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