6 Access Control Trends to Watch Out for in 2024

As busi­ness­es increas­ing­ly piv­ot towards dig­i­tal oper­a­tions, robust access con­trol mea­sures are cru­cial. Access con­trol tech­nol­o­gy is evolv­ing and improv­ing to influ­ence how orga­ni­za­tions man­age access to their facil­i­ties and dig­i­tal assets. Here are six access con­trol trends to watch out for this year.

Cloud-Based Management Systems

Cloud-based access con­trol sys­tems have gained trac­tion and influ­ence how many orga­ni­za­tions man­age and mon­i­tor access. Cloud-based access con­trol man­age­ment offers flex­i­bil­i­ty, scal­a­bil­i­ty and acces­si­bil­i­ty that tra­di­tion­al on-site solu­tions sim­ply can­not match. 

From remote man­age­ment and cen­tral­ized con­trol to seam­less updates, cloud-based secu­ri­ty plat­forms allow orga­ni­za­tions to stream­line their secu­ri­ty and scale resources as need­ed.

How­ev­er, a cloud-based secu­ri­ty man­age­ment sys­tem is not always the right fit. Some busi­ness­es require on-site servers for more strin­gent secu­ri­ty or find over­haul­ing their exist­ing infra­struc­ture too cost­ly. In these cas­es, switch­ing to a hybrid cloud sys­tem where exist­ing devices con­nect to cloud-con­nect­ed soft­ware may be ben­e­fi­cial. 

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Mul­ti­fac­tor authen­ti­ca­tion, or MFA, is an increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar mod­ern access con­trol strat­e­gy. It requires users to authen­ti­cate their iden­ti­ty through mul­ti­ple fac­tors, such as pass­words, bio­met­rics, or mobile tokens. 

By doing so, MFA sig­nif­i­cant­ly increas­es secu­ri­ty, adding lay­ers of ver­i­fi­ca­tion before allow­ing access and mak­ing it more dif­fi­cult for unau­tho­rized users to access build­ings or net­works. 

Touchless Entry and Access Technology

There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic accel­er­at­ed the adop­tion of touch­less entry and access tech­nol­o­gy across indus­tries. From con­tact­less key cards to bio­met­rics authen­ti­ca­tion meth­ods such as facial recog­ni­tion and iris scan­ning, orga­ni­za­tions are embrac­ing solu­tions that min­i­mize phys­i­cal con­tact while main­tain­ing strin­gent secu­ri­ty pro­to­cols. 

In 2024, we will like­ly see an increased adop­tion in the two areas: 

Enhanced Physical Signal Configuration and Motion Sensing Technology

Refine­ments in phys­i­cal sig­nal con­fig­u­ra­tion low­er the risk of acci­den­tal unlocks. For exam­ple, users may need to com­plete a spe­cif­ic action at a cer­tain dis­tance, such as wav­ing a hand in front of a read­er, to unlock access to a cer­tain area.

Elevated Mobile Experience

The tran­si­tion towards mobile cre­den­tials is gain­ing momen­tum as com­pa­nies want stream­lined access solu­tions. Instead of dis­trib­ut­ing tra­di­tion­al key cards and fobs, orga­ni­za­tions are begin­ning to embrace mobile-cen­tric approach­es. 

Users can seam­less­ly unlock near­by doors using mobile devices by lever­ag­ing smart­phone appli­ca­tions and prox­im­i­ty tech­nol­o­gy.

Remote Management

Remote secu­ri­ty and access man­age­ment have rev­o­lu­tion­ized many busi­ness­es’ secu­ri­ty capa­bil­i­ties. This trend will become a promi­nent trend in 2024. 

This trend ini­tial­ly gained momen­tum by help­ing busi­ness own­ers safe­guard their premis­es even while absent, lay­ing the ground­work for busi­ness­es to keep their com­mer­cial offices open while sup­port­ing a hybrid work envi­ron­ment. 

One of the main advan­tages of remote secu­ri­ty and access con­trol is that it allows orga­ni­za­tions to stay flex­i­ble no mat­ter their team’s loca­tion. Remote door access is use­ful for allow­ing clients and employ­ees access with­out the need to be phys­i­cal­ly on-site. 

How­ev­er, ensur­ing that remote unlocks only per­form for ver­i­fied indi­vid­u­als can be a sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenge, and con­verg­ing video sur­veil­lance and access con­trol, anoth­er like­ly trend for 2024, is a viable solu­tion to mit­i­gate this vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty.

Security System Unification

The con­ver­gence of phys­i­cal and dig­i­tal secu­ri­ty sys­tems is a grow­ing trend in access con­trol. By inte­grat­ing access con­trol sys­tems with video sur­veil­lance, intru­sion detec­tion and iden­ti­ty man­age­ment, orga­ni­za­tions can cre­ate a uni­fied secu­ri­ty sys­tem that offers 360-degree pro­tec­tion against diverse threats.

Zero-Trust Security Model

The zero-trust secu­ri­ty mod­el is gain­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty as orga­ni­za­tions acknowl­edge the lim­i­ta­tions of perime­ter-based secu­ri­ty, which assumes trust with­in the net­work. The zero trust mod­el assumes zero trust inside and out­side the net­work perime­ter. 

It means every access request is com­plete­ly authen­ti­cat­ed, autho­rized and encrypt­ed, regard­less of the user’s iden­ti­ty, loca­tion or device. Orga­ni­za­tions can min­i­mize the risk of insid­er threats, data breach­es and unau­tho­rized access attempts by adopt­ing a zero-trust approach. 

Access con­trol trends are con­tin­u­ous­ly evolv­ing to meet the needs and chal­lenges of today’s secu­ri­ty envi­ron­ments. Today, orga­ni­za­tions have sev­er­al options to enhance access con­trol sys­tems, from touch­less entry and remote man­age­ment to zero-trust secu­ri­ty. 

By embrac­ing these trends and lever­ag­ing the lat­est secu­ri­ty tech­nolo­gies, busi­ness­es can safe­guard their assets and pro­tect their per­son­nel from ever-chang­ing secu­ri­ty threats. 

Safeguard Your Business with Confidence Today

Look­ing for an access con­trol sys­tem that you can rely on? Pro­tec­tion Plus is here to help. As the top secu­ri­ty sys­tem provider for busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions in Toron­to and the GTA, we spe­cial­ize in deliv­er­ing tai­lored solu­tions for your unique secu­ri­ty require­ments. 

Whether you oper­ate a com­mer­cial office, a man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ty or a retail store­front, our team works with you to thor­ough­ly assess your needs. With cus­tomiz­able options and per­son­al­ized setups avail­able, you can trust us to help you find the per­fect access con­trol solu­tion for your busi­ness needs.

For more infor­ma­tion about our access con­trol tech­nol­o­gy or to sched­ule a com­pli­men­ta­ry con­sul­ta­tion, get in touch online or call us at 1–844–365‑7587.