Physical Workstation Security
Gone are the days when you could afford to buy a computer, put it on your desk and work away at it for its commercial life without considering its maintenance. It is critical, for reliability, performance and security that you perform regular maintenance on your hardware and software.
We should all be aware how important it is to keep your computers up to date with the latest patches and security fixes for operating systems, browsers and other software where sensitive information is stored.
Many of us, however, tend to overlook the actual physical hardware security that can help prevent theft.
Is physical security an issue?
Large corporations have reported losing millions of dollars of hardware due to loss or theft.
Think about it. You would not leave your briefcase sitting on your desk opened for all to see and access. So why would you do this with your computer which contains so much valuable and often privileged information?
The good news is that it is easy to secure just about any desktop or laptop PC, on the road or within a designated location.
How should you protect your workstations?
Lets deal with your mobile assets first: things like your laptop computer, your tablet computer or your PDA. There are many obvious, ‘habitual’ things you can do to prevent theft of your personal equipment when out of the office.
For example:
• Never let your machine out of sight. Keep your hardware in a secure environment and away from prying eyes and hands.
• Try to use laptop bags and PDA pouches that do not have brand names splashed all over the front of them. Use carrying devices which are not flamboyant and which don’t cry out “I contain valuable and desirable equipment”.
• Have a combination lock and alarm on your laptop bag. Keeping your bag locked is one thing. There are also alarms which will sound if the bag is disturbed without the alarm being turned off. Such a device may just save the day.
• Store your laptop out of sight when not in use. For example, secure it in your car boot or under the load area cover in a station waggon. Or purchase a lockable boot safe which can be bolted to the vehicle’s bodywork and make it that much more difficult to steal. Do not leave it lying on the front or back seat in full sight of the light fingered car park kleptomaniac.
• You can even have bio-metric fingerprint readers that will only allow certain people to access the laptop when booted. But this will not stop them stealing the machine. It may, however, save your data from being used for nefarious purposes.
If it is unavoidable that you leave your laptop or desktop unattended and out of your sight in the office, or on-site, there are also methods by which you can secure this equipment and prevent would-be thieves making off with your expensive tools, or those of your boss.
• Using special steel cables with varying locking methods, like a combination lock, a key lock or a fingerprint reader and padlock. These cables simply need to be looped around a solid, immovable object and attached to your hardware to prevent light fingers walking away with it.
• There are many desktop lock-down devices into which you can insert your laptop or desktop that require keys to get access to the enclosed system box, but which still allow access to cables at the back of the computer.
• With regards to securing your servers, a lockable rack system enables you to provide a secondary level of defence against thieves walking off with your enterprise information and the where with all for collecting your money and paying your bills. Surely this information is worth just about anything and a rack is not very expensive.
• If you are working late or early, lock offices and the external entrances to the premises to prevent people walking in off the street and taking equipment when there are unattended areas of the office.
Many of the suggestions in this article are simple habits to get into and therefore cost little or nothing to implement. It just means thinking of the risk and taking the time to lock-up your equipment or the office.
Items like the cables, finger print readers, lockable desktop or server compartments all require an investment, but can save you significant amounts of money in terms of the physical replacement of hardware, lost productivity, lost data and the time taken by internal or external IT support to replace and/or recover the equipment and data.
If you would like someone to review your machinery’s physical security, please call Tripos and we will have one of our experienced staff call and offer advice.
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