Security controls need to be regularly tested to ensure they continue to operate as expected, and physical controls are no exception. It is very rare that we assess a site and find all alarms to be working as expected. Common problems include:
- Door contact sensors and tamper sensors not installed, not connected, or turned off
- Glass break sensors dirty, broken or placed too far from the glazing risk not properly detect glass breakage
- Glass break sensors tuned to be too sensitive and causing false alarms
- Request to exit sensors capturing hallway activity and disabling the alarm improperly
- Accessibility buttons which trigger door forced and door held alarms every time they are used
- Intrusion being correctly detected but alarms providing insufficient information to determine where, when and how the intrusion occurred
- Alarms relaying incorrect or confusing information about their location or mode, causing guards to respond to the wrong location
- Correct alarms being logged in the access controller but not relayed to anyone for response
- Alarms being enabled only after hours, with the hours set to be far too permissive.
GGR will test each installed alarm or sensor by simulating an intrusion and ensuring that it detects the simulated intrusion, and that a timely alarm is sent to the security operations centre, containing enough information for them to action the alarm correctly. Additional testing may be performed to determine what bypasses and defeats the sensors are vulnerable to.
A modern access control system has many components integral to its secure operation. These need to be tested to ensure that an intrusion will be detected, and to keep false positives at bay!