Fundamentals of Physical Security Outline

Course Description:
Today's Data Centers must consider not only network security, but also physical security. This
course defines what physical security means for mission critical facilities and identifies what assets
it needs to protect. Also discussed are the different means to control facility access, common
physical security methods, security devices, and budget considerations related to physical security.

Course Outline:
Learning Objectives
At the completion of this course, you will be able to:
 Define what physical security means for mission critical facilities
 Identify the assets that require physical security protection in a data center
 List ways to control access to facilities
 Explain common physical security methods and devices
 Evaluate the tradeoffs between physical security and its costs

Agenda
 What is Physical Security?
 What needs Protection?
 Access Criteria
 Physical Security Identification Methods and Devices
 Risk Tolerance versus Cost
 Summary

Course Content or Material:

1) Introduction
a) What is Physical Security?
i) Physical security means keeping unauthorized or ill-intentioned people out of places
that they do not belong
ii) Physical security can also refer to protection from catastrophic damage
b) What needs protection?
c) To identify what needs protecting, create a conceptual map of the physical facility. Then,
locate the areas that need to be secured, and classify them by the strength or level of
security.

2) Access Criteria
a) Physical security asks two main questions:
i) “Who are you?”
ii) “Why are you here?”

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3) Physical Security Identification Methods and Devices
a) What you have
i) Magnetic stripe card
ii) Barium ferrite card
iii) Weigand card
iv) Bar-code card
v) Infrared shadow card
vi) Proximity card
vii) Contactless smart cards
b) What you know
i) Password
ii) Code
iii) Procedure

4) Other Physical Security Methods

5) Site Selection
a) Quality staff provides the best protection
b) Provide surveillance
c) Ability to respond with mobility and intelligence

6) Overall Considerations for Physical Security

a) Risk Tolerance
b) Cost

7) Summary
a) Physical security means keeping unauthorized or ill-intentioned people out of places that
they do not belong, such as a data center or other locations that may contain Network
Critical Physical Infrastructure
b) Physical security screens people who want to enter a data center -- Network Security
screens data that comes to a data center
c) Human error accounts for 60% of data center downtime
d) Create a map of the physical facility to identify what needs protecting, then identify the
areas that need to be secured
e) The two main questions that security access asks are
i) “Who are you?”
ii) “Why are you here?”
f) The three main security identification methods are:
i) What you have
ii) What you know
iii) Who you are
g) Security identification methods should be combined to improve reliability

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 h) Biometric security identification is not yet efficient enough to use on a mass scale or as an
exclusive form of identification
i) The two overall considerations for physical security are:
i) Define the problem
ii) Apply the technology
j) Potential loss needs to be weighed against the known costs of security, when designing
and implementing a physical security strategy

Course Assessment: Test Your Knowledge

Course Survey: We Value Your Opinion

©2013 Schneider Electric. All rights reserved. All trademarks provided are the property of their respective owners.