2023 Guide to Business Security Planning

As we approach the New Year, now is the ide­al time to begin your secu­ri­ty plan­ning for 2023 and ensure your busi­ness is ade­quate­ly pro­tect­ed.

New­er tech­nolo­gies have made today’s busi­ness secu­ri­ty solu­tions stronger than ever, pro­vid­ing bet­ter pro­tec­tion against theft, break-ins, bur­glary, van­dal­ism, fire and oth­er threats. If you haven’t updat­ed your secu­ri­ty deploy­ments in the last few years, chances are you’re leav­ing your busi­ness at risk.

Use this guide to help you reeval­u­ate your exist­ing secu­ri­ty, iden­ti­fy weak­ness­es and pri­or­i­tize upgrades.

Implement a stronger security foundation

A com­mer­cial alarm sys­tem is still the crit­i­cal foun­da­tion of your busi­ness secu­ri­ty. But if you’re rely­ing on old­er tech­nol­o­gy, then it’s prob­a­bly time for an update.

Today’s com­mer­cial secu­ri­ty sys­tems pro­vide bet­ter detec­tion of intrud­ers with advanced door/window sen­sors, motion detec­tors, glass-break break sen­sors and oth­er fea­tures, such as face recog­ni­tion. You can use par­ti­tions to sep­a­rate impor­tant parts of your busi­ness, inte­grate employ­ee access con­trol fea­tures and man­age every­thing from a smart­phone, wher­ev­er you are. Plus, with alarm mon­i­tor­ing, you can be sure that author­i­ties are prompt­ly dis­patched when inci­dents occur.

Strengthen entry points

Even with a secu­ri­ty sys­tem in place, crim­i­nals will still look for weak­ness­es in your doors and win­dows. Addi­tion­al lay­ers of pro­tec­tion are thus very impor­tant for pre­vent­ing break-ins, espe­cial­ly when the busi­ness is closed.

Stronger door locks and oth­er door hard­ware are essen­tial for thwart­ing intru­sion. Sim­i­lar­ly, win­dow film and secu­ri­ty bars are strong­ly rec­om­mend­ed to pre­vent access through ground-lev­el win­dows.

Simplify and secure your access control

Today’s access con­trol sys­tems make it much eas­i­er to pro­vide secure access to your build­ing, while also track­ing who’s com­ing and going. These sys­tems are inher­ent­ly more secure than pro­vid­ing tra­di­tion­al keys to employ­ees, because they remove the risk of keys being copied (as well as the need to con­stant­ly rekey the lock when keys go miss­ing). Autho­rized users can gain access with a key code, key fob or their mobile phone (with­out even remov­ing it from their pock­et).

Some sys­tems also fea­ture built-in cam­eras and two-way com­mu­ni­ca­tion, which is ide­al for com­mu­ni­cat­ing with deliv­ery per­son­nel and vis­i­tors.

Gain a clearer view of your premises, indoors and out

New­er secu­ri­ty cam­eras give you much greater insight into what’s hap­pen­ing at your busi­ness. The pres­ence of these cam­eras alone can deter theft by cus­tomers and your own employ­ees. If an inci­dent occurs, whether it’s bur­glary, van­dal­ism, ille­gal dump­ing or oth­er activ­i­ty, you’ll have clear footage to pro­vide to police and insur­ance com­pa­nies.

There are numer­ous types of cam­era sys­tems avail­able for indoor and out­door instal­la­tion, offer­ing fea­tures such as off-site view­ing, AI-pow­ered motion detec­tion, sound detec­tion and night vision, just to name a few.

Prioritizing your security updates

If you’re not sure how to pri­or­i­tize your secu­ri­ty plan­ning, con­sid­er some of the fol­low­ing ques­tions:

• Have there been any secu­ri­ty inci­dents in the last 3 years?
• What laps­es or secu­ri­ty fail­ures allowed those inci­dents to occur? Were spe­cif­ic sys­tems at fault?
• Have you recent­ly con­duct­ed a risk assess­ment of your busi­ness? How have your secu­ri­ty needs changed over time?
• Is your busi­ness sub­ject to any laws that require you to imple­ment cer­tain types of secu­ri­ty sys­tems, such as secu­ri­ty cam­eras for select retail envi­ron­ments?

Conducting a business security audit

The sin­gle best way to approach your plan­ning is to request a busi­ness secu­ri­ty audit. A secu­ri­ty pro­fes­sion­al from PROTECTION PLUS will con­duct an exten­sive audit of the secu­ri­ty vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties at your loca­tion and will pro­pose options that fit your needs. Con­tact us today to request an audit or learn more about the secu­ri­ty solu­tions out­lined above.