As organizations prepare for the unexpected – whether it’s the risk of terrorism, Intellectual Property (IP) theft, insider threats, workplace violence and/or natural disasters – in order to mitigate risk, a more comprehensive and collaborative approach to protecting and managing resources is imperativeto ensuring the safest, most effective response.
From protecting its people and intellectual property to its property and other assets, enterprises with a complete picture of what’s going on inside and around its walls are better equipped to respond when situations occur.
With PSIM technology, organisations have this centralised view, empowering them to respond more effectively and efficiently to whatever is transpiring.
Imagine, for instance, that an alarm is triggered when an individual tries to badge into a secure door without the proper credentials. In most circumstances this is not a threat yet.
However, if the same badge is then used to attempt access to several other secured areas in a short period of time, the PSIM technology will correlate the multiple alarms to determine if there is a situation.
Identify, manage and resolve
Live and recorded video feeds from the cameras nearest to the doors in question are brought up in the command center. The information pertaining to the badge owner, including a photo ID, is available for comparison with the individual attempting access to the building.
After verifying that the user is not the owner, the badge can be immediately deactivated and, at the same time, officers are notified of the potential intruder and provided with video and location of the suspect in order to intercept and question them.
Because of the PSIM software, the company can identify, manage and resolve the situation before the individual enters the building and creates some sort of safety or security situation such as a data breach.
If an unauthorized individual walked into an office and left with a thumb drive of sensitive company information, this loss is only the tip of the iceberg of the overall negative impact on the organization.
Business disruption
To put the cost of a data breach into perspective, a Ponemon survey last year put the average cost of data breaches at GB pound 4.5 million (7.2 million USD).
Furthermore, the business disruption cost for even five or ten minutes could be several million pounds.
And the company’s brand is at stake. How much is your company brand worth? How much risk and downtime does your enterprise business continuity strategy account for?
By having PSIM technology in place, organizations are able to mitigate these and other types of threats.
Imagine this same enterprise is located in Birmingham, where some of the UK riots took place. What would happen if the office was attacked?
Fire could trap employees within the building or broken windows could entice rioters to enter, wrecking havoc throughout and potentially stealing or destroying IP including hard drives with sensitive company information. Any number of situations could unfold that put the enterprise at risk.
Real-time intelligence
With PSIM technology in place, a company could pull real-time intelligence from its various security cameras and devices to assess the unfolding situation.
For instance, amidst a riot, the company could determine the exact location of intruders in the building and contain them. Or if employees were trapped in a stairwell during a fire, the company could dispatch personnel directly to the situation.
With this real-time intelligence, the right people have the right information at the right time to execute the best course of action.
From an enterprise perspective, there are significant cost and risk benefits to be gained in adopting a PSIM system for enterprise-wide security.
The ability to have a unified view of what’s going on and have the right resources in place torespond accordingly, whether it be a real threat situation like a natural disaster or security breach, or a false alarm like burnt popcorn setting of the fire alarm, enterprises are able to act accordingly in the most efficient and effective way possible.
In any organization, the best offense a company can have to defend against security and safety situations and mitigate risk is real-time intelligence and the right technology to empower the right people at the right time to respond accordingly.
