Recently in Arizona, it was revealed that for a period of five months in 2007, a Chinese national sailed a desk at the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center and had access to the state's driver license database. Not only that, numerous local law enforcement databases and, rosters of intelligence and investigator names were also in his access realm. So how did this happen? An Arizona Central report attempted to find out and came back with some astonishing information.

Protecting vital areas with biometrics

While the Counter Terrorism Center isn't a data center, the security protocols are similar and as stringent. There are a number of options available to secure such crucial operations centers, but none so inviolable as biometric technology. This option of security is a non-duplicable way of ensuring access control to the data center. Deploying fingerprint scanners at the entrance to the data center can alleviate the type of problem that happened in Arizona and protect from the far-reaching fallout that happens after a breach occurs. An employee scans their fingerprints into the security database and a template of that employee is created and stored. When that employee needs to access the data center the use a fingerprint reader that will match the print with the template and allow access. No match, no access and that is solid data center security.

Incursions and breaches can mean huge losses
The cost of a data center breach can be astronomical and have regulatory implications as well. A recent survey conducted by the Ponemon Institute put the average cost of a data center breach at $3.5 million. That breaks down to roughly $7900 per minute, an expensive mistake for any business to have to deal with. Bank Info Security said that the Target breach is still giving the company fits as the loss cost is rising continually. Their story said that the cost of last year's mishap is $146 million dollars and growing so it behooves company management to really look at cutting-edge security methods to protect their data centers.

Breaches do occur
Technology is evolving all the time and so are threats. Both sides, the companies and the criminals, are always working to stay ahead of the curve. No matter how vigilant, proactive and knowledgeable company management is breaches do and will take place. Being protected with biometric technology, though, can keep a business operational if not free from attacks all together. Fingerprint scanning can secure the data center by providing uninterrupted biometric access control to the facility. Another Ponemon report showed that a majority of breaches, intentional or not, stem from inside behavior among employees. Proper training and top-notch security will help alleviate management and security concerns and keep the center up-and-running while businesses with key or passcard-based security are more vulnerable to hacks and breaches which lead to downtime and loss of revenue.

Deploying biometric technology at the data center is a win-win proposal for all involved. Click here to discover how you can achieve uniform access control from the front door to the server cabinet.