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4.0 Network Security

4.5 Explain the importance of physical security

Makiel [Muh-Keel]

Last edited 556 days ago by Makiel [Muh-Keel]

Physical Security

Physical Security is also very important. It doesn’t matter how many logical security systems you have in place, someone physically breaking in and gaining access will always be an issue. If your system is not physically secured, you're basically sending out an open invitation to a Pandora's box of problems without even realizing it.

Detection Methods

Detection technologies and procedures are designed to alert you when bad things might be occurring.

Cameras In many high-security scenarios it may be advisable to visually monitor the area 24 hours a day. When this is the case, it will make sense to deploy video monitoring. There are 2 types of cameras used

Ip Cameras IP video systems are a good example of the benefits of networking applications. These systems can be used both for surveillance of the facility and for facilitating collaboration.

Analog Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras are unable to send their images across IP networks. CCTV cameras record directly to a medium such as video tape or hard drive. It is possible to convert the signal to digital in cases where you need to send it across an IP network.

All cameras should cover all entrances to the building and the entire parking lot. Be sure that cameras are in weather-proof and tamper-proof housings and review the output at a security-monitoring office. Record everything on extended-length tape recorders.

Motion Detection

There are different types of motion detection systems.

Passive Infrared (PIR) systems operate by identifying changes in heat waves in an area. Because the presence of an intruder would raise the temperature of the surrounding air particles, the system alerts or sounds an alarm when this occurs.

Electromechanical systems operate by detecting a break in an electrical circuit. For example, the circuit might cross a window or door, and when the window or door is opened, the circuit is broken, setting off an alarm of some sort. Another example might be a pressure pad placed under the carpet to detect the presence of individuals.

Photometric or photoelectric systems operate by detecting changes in the light and thus are used in windowless areas. They send a beam of light across the area and if the beam is interrupted (by a person, for example), the alarm is triggered.

Acoustical Systems use strategically placed microphones to detect any sound made during a forced entry. These systems only work well in areas where there is not a lot of surrounding noise. They are typically very sensitive, which would cause many false alarms in a loud area, such as a door next to a busy street.

Wave Motion Detector These devices generate a wave pattern in the area and detect any motion that disturbs the wave pattern. When the pattern is disturbed, an alarm sounds.

Capacitance Detector These devices emit a magnetic field and monitor that field. If the field is disrupted, which will occur when a person enters the area, the alarm will sound.

Asset Tags

Proper asset management is not rocket science. It boils down to knowing exactly what you have, when you got it, where it is, and where the license to use it is.

Labeling or tagging servers, workstations, printers, ports on infrastructure devices (routers and switches), and other items is another form of asset documentation that often doesn't receive enough attention. Not only does this make your day-to-day duties easier, it makes the process of maintaining accurate records simpler and supports a proper asset management plan.

Tamper detection refers to any method that alerts you when a device or the enclosure in which it resides has been opened or an attempt has been made to open it. A good example is computer chassis intrusion detection.

You should use settings in the BIOS/UEFI to alert you when the case has been opened

Prevention Methods

While detection mechanisms are great, wouldn't it be even better if we could just avoid the issue altogether? There are some measures we can take to Prevent some of the issues that detection mechanisms are designed to identify.

End-User Training is the simplest yet most effect prevention method their is! It's really important to the effectiveness of your security policy for everyone to know about and understand it. And you have to back up your training by providing your end users with hard-copy, printed reference manuals in case they forget something (which they will).

Access Control Hardware comprises a category of devices that are used to identify and authenticate users. They combine a technical physical control (the device) and administrative controls (password policies and procedures) to create an access control system.

Proximity or Badge Readers are door controls that read a card from a short distance and are used to control access to sensitive rooms. These devices can also provide a log of all entries and exits. Usually, a card contains the user information required to authenticate and authorize the user to enter the room.

Biometric Systems are designed to operate using characteristic and behavioral factors. While knowledge factors (password, PIN, or something you know) are the most common authentication factors used, characteristic factors represent something you are (fingerprint, iris scan), while behavioral factors represent something you do (signature analysis).

An Access Control Vestibule or Mantrap is used to control access to the vestibule of a building. It is a series of two doors with a small room between them. The user is authenticated at the first door and then allowed into the room. At that point, additional verification will occur (such as a guard visually identifying the person) and then they are allowed through the second door

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Smart Lockers A smart lock is an electromechanical lock that is designed to perform locking and unlocking operations on a door when it receives such instructions from an authorized device using a wireless protocol and a cryptographic key to execute the authorization process.

With smart locks, lockers can be assigned on-the-fly, reset, audited, and reassigned using simple desktop or mobile software. They can utilize many lock choices (RFID or NFC, others with digital touch pads).

Asset Disposal

The final steps in the asset life cycle is the Disposal of the asset when it is no longer of use or when it is replaced with a better alternative.

Factory Reset Many device vendors offer a factory reset that is mostly used to clear out the accumulated gunk and start over, thus improving performance.

This is not a technique on which to rely if there is sensitive data involved.

Although remote wipe can be used to wipe data from a device if it is stolen, it is generally not acceptable to wipe away sensitive data.

if the device is turned off or the battery has run down, remote wipe does not work.

Sanitizing Devices For Disposal There a number of different methods used to wipe data from different storage types.

Clearing includes removing data from the media so that the data cannot be reconstructed using normal file recovery techniques and tools. With this method, the data is only recoverable using special forensic techniques.

Purging, also referred to as sanitization, makes the data unreadable even with advanced forensic techniques. With this technique, data should be unrecoverable.

Overwriting is a technique that writes data patterns over the entire media, thereby eliminating any trace data

Degaussing exposes the media to a powerful, alternating magnetic field, removing any previously written data and leaving the media in a magnetically randomized (blank) state.

Encryption scrambles the data on the media, thereby rendering it unreadable without the encryption key.

Physical destruction involves physically breaking the media apart or chemically altering it. For magnetic media, physical destruction can also involve exposure to high temperatures.

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