Is your security management system ready for a crisis?
Today's organisations need intelligent access control systems that can adapt and respond quickly to a range of emergency situations
When it comes to trends in access control technology, the introduction of predefined local crisis response patterns, such as Nedap’s own Security Level Management option, represents a major watershed in the capability of access control systems to adapt to emergency situations – both in terms of reaction time and in terms of the potential to respond proportionally to the severity of the incident.
In today’s ever changing world, basic access control might no longer be enough to secure a company’s premises. More and more customers require access control systems that can respond appropriately to different crises and possible threats, without giving up control. In fact, if this trend continues, access control systems will become a far better enabler of a company’s security policy.
Key benefits
From a security and risk perspective, the transition to more intelligent access control systems with predefined local response patterns brings a number of concrete benefits. In particular a better response which is in accordance with the security policy in crisis situations.
Electronic access control systems have been designed to support security personnel in granting access to people based on parameters such as ID, time, day and location. In case of emergency you can override these parameters manually by changing the system settings. For a small organisation with a limited number of access points this can work without any problems. For larger organisations however, with a large number of people and access points, it is not an easy task to manually change the authorisation settings, especially if one is under pressure. Security Level Management enables security managers to predefine emergency scenarios and activate them with one single click. Thus, making it very easy to respond accurately.
Moreover, manually overriding the systems settings to close or to open a number of entrances or to revoke the access rights of certain individuals is an ‘all-or-nothing’ decision that can be a very disproportional action compared to the incident. This can create unnecessary security breaches and tangle up the behaviour of the access control system under normal conditions. Security Level Management enables security managers to change the authorisations of persons and vehicles back and forth just by switching to a different security level.
A good architecture is crucial
Anticipating certain threats and predefining the desired response of an access control system is one thing, but getting the system to act accordingly in a matter of seconds is another.
In emergency situations you don’t want to be dependent on the speed of the network, before your anticipated response comes into play. Time is crucial. So the desired response should be stored locally on the controllers.
Only then you will be able to change the entrances or the direction in which people can move. You can also add Verification Control, Anti-Pass Back or counting to certain entrances, all in just a matter of seconds. By creating refined combinations of carrier groups and entrance groups and storing these locally, you can design an appropriate response to any predictable security incident.
Security Level Management enables security managers to predefine emergency scenarios and activate them with one single click. Thus, making it very easy to respond accurately
Examples of crisis scenarios
An example of predefined response patterns could be a panic response scenario. Normally, all entrances on the outer perimeter of, for example, a research department are controlled. Due to an incident, this department needs to be evacuated. Employees have to exit quickly, but they must be prevented from going back in or from entering certain restricted areas. With Security Level Management the security level can be changed. Thus immediately changing the access control in such a way that all employees can evacuate, all badges are authorised on the way out but none are authorised to enter.
Another fine example is a theft scenario, in which one closes all entrances to a certain area so no one can leave the area, but still allows the guards and police officers to enter with their badges. This way only they can enter and exit until everyone present has been accounted for or the theft has been resolved.
Be in control under all circumstances
To conclude, there is little doubt that the advent of options such as AEOS Security Level Management opens up tremendous opportunities for security managers to retain control of access to their premises, even during a crisis. Moreover it allows security personnel to respond rapidly and accurately to anticipated incidents without disrupting your whole organisation.
 For more information on Security Level Management or the security management system of Nedap, AEOS, please contact: Niek Bragt, Tel: +971 4 609 1041, Email: info-me@nedap.com or visit: www.nedap-aeos.com
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