Securing the data center against physical breaches and incursions is but one aspect of the focus and resources companies must use to protect their most valuable assets. Ensuring that the valuable data stored there is safe from prying eyes and malicious intent is number 1-A on the security team's list of critical job functions. An NDB Accountants story recently outlined what some of the priorities are for companies looking to take their data protection services to the next level.
Prepare a checklist
Standard data center operational procedure is for the company to have an established checklist of protocols that apply as soon as an individual appears on the grounds of the data center. The NDB report said that the data center building should be of solid construction that is UL-ballistically compliant. Any armed incursion to the center would be met with a formidable physical edifice designed to repel significant force. Barriers, battering rams and barbed wire around the perimeter and entry points to the facility is also a marked and visible deterrent to anyone considering an attack on the data center. Strategic vegetation location and maintenance is critical so security teams will have clear line-of-sight across the entire campus, said the study.
Biometric security
Once the exterior of the facility is satisfactorily protected, access to the data center needs to be addressed. Key and passcard access control have been the traditional means to secure the DC against internal malicious acts, but have been defeated so many times that security experts began to look for other methods of securing their vital information. Biometric technology has emerged as a clearly effective method to protect against piggy-backing or more than one person entering an access point. Software developers have come up with an unduplicable discipline to ensure access control to all sensitive areas of the business.
Fingerprint scanning is cutting-edge
Deploying fingerprint scanning technology gives company officials a virtually foolproof way of making sure only authorized personnel gain access to the data center. Fingerprint scanning takes an employee's fingerprint and scans a portion of it into a template designed exclusively for that employee. Fingerprints can't be duplicated so the scanning system provides management with an almost inviolable means to keep data and personal information safely ensconced. To gain access to the center the employee must place their finger on a fingerprint reader which matches their print with the one on file in the company data base.
A recent SAP data Center report said that size doesn't matter when it comes to data center protection because all of them are designed to effect smooth data operation across the entire scope of the company. These operations need to be guarded very well, said the report, to ensure the overall success of the business. The higher the sensitivity of the area, the stronger the security should be said the article. A recent CIO story quoted a Ponemon survey showing that most data breaches are caused by employees or "insiders." The study found that the cost of each piece of breached information is $136 per record. With hundreds of thousands of data records stored in the data center it's pretty clear that a breach, accidental or malicious, can be an astronomical loss generator for any business.
While multiple layers of safeguards to protect the data center are laudable, biting the bullet and deploying biometric technology and fingerprint scanning access control can assure company management and security personnel that every possible method is being utilized to protect the one area no small to big-sized companies can afford to neglect – the data center.
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