Christian Little

Physical security is about measures that deter or prevent intruders from accessing your property. As a first line of defense against an intruder or unwanted individual or individuals, it is highly important. 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. Window boarding has also been achieved by the use of wood panels which are considered less suitable. This may be a slightly cheaper approach, but will degrade quicker and be more vulnerable to attack.

Physical security can be arranged on several layers or tiers that you should be bearing in mind when considering your security at home. 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 are by definition difficult to shift or damage, but need to be installed by a reputable security company.

Mechanical Security

This layer is concerned with mechanical aspects of security. These include security doors, gates, locks, windows. Valid access through a gate or door can be either via a physical metal key or via an 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.