Securing your Office
How to Protect your Office from Criminals
Owners of retail stores spend a lot of time working on improving security at their properties. However, retail stores aren’t the only locations that criminals target. Office buildings are also common targets for criminals. There are many reasons why.
A lot of offices contain valuable electronics, such as computers, smart phones, tablets, televisions, and other such items. These are often small enough that they can easily be carried from a scene, but valuable enough that they can easily be resold on the black market.
However, electronics aren’t the only items that criminals look for in office buildings. One of the main reasons that criminals break into offices is to steal important information and data. Think of the average office. There is likely a lot of paperwork in the building: Employee information, client information, likely even financial documents. In the wrong hands, all of these details could be very dangerous. Personal and financial details can be used for fraud, to steal identities, and for a variety of other crimes.
Criminals aren’t just looking for paperwork, they’re also looking for financial data stored on computers, on servers and in data centers. Breaking into an office gives them access to this critical data. This is why your office, and any areas that contain valuables or critical information, should be protected.
Stopping Criminals
One of the most effective office security tools is physical security. While alarm systems and security cameras can certainly be beneficial, physical security tools put a barrier between criminals and your valuable assets. A large percentage of robberies that take place at office buildings are smash and grab robberies. In these crimes, criminals use force to break through doors and windows. They then enter the property and take what they can get as quickly as possible.
Criminals know that, even if an alarm system is designed to contact the authorities as soon as a break-in occurs, it takes time for the police to respond and arrive on scene. Criminals take advantage of this situation and get in and out as quickly as possible. Most smash and grab robberies are over within a few minutes, but they can be incredibly devastating to a business. Not only does the company lose assets, but the property damage and inconvenience of the situation are also financially damaging.
Smash and grab robberies are not the only crimes that occur at office properties. In some cases, criminals pose as visitors or clients in order to enter an office. Then, when they believe no one is looking, they attempt to gain access to restricted areas. Physical security prevents these sort of intrusions. Those who are authorized to enter sensitive areas will be able to freely do so, but others will be locked out. This is simple to do by installing security gates on restricted hallways and doors and only giving authorized individuals the keys.
Locked secure cabinets should be used to store company data, customer information, and small electronic devices. By keeping such critical assets locked away, you are making it significantly more difficult for criminals to steal them. These prevents both smash and grab robberies as well as many other crimes that depend on speed and criminals working without being noticed.
