Enterprise Security Tips for Improving the Physical Security of Commercial Facilities

Prevention, deterrence, and detection are the three most critical components of enterprise security. In this article, we’ll give you some of our top tips for improving your commercial facility’s physical security to protect against a full range of common commercial security threats.

What Is Enterprise Security?

Enterprise security is a blanket term that covers the various technologies and best practices used to secure businesses and commercial facilities against bad guys and their actions.

The term is often used to refer to digital security measures implemented to protect an enterprise’s networks and systems, but there’s also a physical element to enterprise security — bad actors don’t just come in the form of hackers and cybercriminals.

Common physical threats to enterprise security

Any business or commercial facility is a potential target for everything from burglary to violent attacks.

For example, offices are full of valuable computers and other expensive equipment that make them an appealing target to burglars.

And, as we’ve seen all too often in the news, any facility can become the target of a disgruntled former employee or a random attacker seeking to do others harm, resulting in an active threat scenario.

While burglary and active threats are two very different types of enterprise security threats, they have one major thing in common: the bad guys typically force entry to get inside and commit theft or hurt people.

This is why it’s so important for enterprise businesses to not overlook their physical security when implementing a comprehensive commercial security plan.

Besides targeted burglaries and attacks, businesses in certain areas are also prone to other risks, such as rioting and looting in the event of civil unrest or storm damage in the event of a hurricane or strong windstorm.

Summary of security threats to businesses:

• Burglary
• Active threats
• Rioting and looting
• Storm damage

How Can You Improve Physical Enterprise Security?

In order to protect your business or facility against all the threats mentioned above, you should use a combination of enterprise security tactics:

1. Create physical barriers to forced entry
2. Implement access control systems
3. Install a monitored surveillance system
4. Strategically light your business
5. Don’t forget about the alarms

Create physical barriers to forced entry

In the vast majority of burglaries and active threat attacks, the bad guys gain entry to their targeted facility through a vulnerable door or window.

So, when it comes to physical enterprise security, the first thing you need to do is fortify your building’s doors and windows against forced entry.

Standard annealed window glass, and even the tempered safety glass commonly used in commercial glass doors and storefronts, is incredibly easy to break using a heavy hand tool or pretty much any other heavy object.

In the event of an active threat scenario, the attackers often shoot out a window or door to gain entry to the building.

In order to protect your business and employees against forced entry, the absolute best thing you can do is reinforce vulnerable glass doors and windows with polycarbonate security glazing, such as ArmorPlast® from Riot Glass, LLC.

ArmorPlast® polycarbonate security glazing is available in a full range of strengths, including containment-grade (non-ballistic) and ballistic-grade (bullet-resistant) varieties. 

Whatever the perceived threat level for your commercial facility may be (which you can determine with a professional threat assessment), there’s an ArmorPlast® product that will protect your property and people from bad actors.

ArmorPlast® glazing shields can be retrofitted into or onto almost any existing framing system, so there’s no need for expensive glass replacement using other types of security glazing. 

The sleek profile and glass-like appearance/surface hardness make polycarbonate security glazing practically invisible, and the thermoplastic strength of polycarbonate creates a virtually unbreakable access denial barrier.

These glazing shields provide 24/7 protection for your commercial glass against all the common physical enterprise security threats.

Implement access control systems

Once you have physical security barriers in place, you of course still need to let the right people come and go from your facility. This is where access control systems come in.

There are many different types of access control systems, including:

• Entryways manned by security personnel
• Key-carded access doors
• Entry doors with PINs/passwords
• Smart access control systems (controlled from users’ smartphones)
• Biometric access control entryways

Depending on the size or nature of your commercial facility, you may have one or several secure access-controlled entryways. The important thing is to strictly control who can enter your building through these points.

Install a monitored surveillance system

Unlike the two enterprise security tactics mentioned above, a surveillance system won’t stop criminals from entering your business, but it can act as a strong deterrent to forced entry. 

A monitored surveillance also provides the opportunity to catch suspicious behavior and have security personnel or the police deal with it before it goes too far.

Place surveillance cameras at all potential entry point to your business, as well as in other strategic locations both inside and outside the building. 

Make sure the cameras are out of reach or protected by some type of tamper-proof system, so the bad guys can’t put them out of commission.

Strategically light your business

Lighting is something that many business owners overlook when it comes to physical security. 

Since the majority of burglaries take place after business hours, when criminals can more easily hide their actions in the dark, lighting can go a long way towards deterring burglary. It also makes it easier for passersby or patrolling police to catch prowlers and burglars in the act.

Consider installing motion-sensing flood lighting outside your business, near entryways, walkways, and parking lots.

It’s also a good idea to have always-on lighting surrounding your business, so it’s well-illuminated all night long. 

For example, you could install landscape lighting that serves the dual purpose of improving your building’s curb appeal and boosting security.

Don’t forget about the alarms

Lastly, no enterprise security system is complete without a fully functional, monitored alarm system. 

Such an alarm system will go off if anyone manages to breach an access control point or a door or window, notifying both you and the authorities of the security breach so you can deal with it.

Let Riot Glass, LLC Fortify Your Enterprise Business Today

At Riot Glass, we have decades of experience in commercial fenestration security, and we manufacture and install premium security glazing solutions.

Contact us today to discuss how we can help you fortify your business, without making it look fortified.