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At the simplest level, any security system is only as good as its weakest link. A common thought, but in the case of perimeter security – especially at high-profile sites and places of importance – a sentiment that rings true. While permanent security features such as fixed bollards, fences, and barriers maintain a constant presence, anywhere that requires access must be more flexible.
That’s where secure access control solutions come in.
In a space requiring vehicular or pedestrian access, ensuring that you have secure systems and protocols in place is essential to maintaining the entire site’s security integrity. During the planning stage, it’s important to consider the different types of access that might be required throughout the lifecycle of a site, including (but not limited to):
- Controlled Access for Staff
- Public Access (if required)
- Emergency Vehicle Access
- Shutting Down a Site Completely, if appropriate
If applicable, each of the above would require access points of some kind to be facilitated within a wider perimeter security scheme, and, where there is a requirement for access, there is a potential for a weak point within a scheme.
At the outset of any planning work, considering how a space will be used and how access will be managed and who by is key for ensuring after implementation, your site is as secure as is required.
In this article, the experts at ATG Access consider the full range of access control solutions available and the various considerations that those responsible for security must consider while planning a project. We run through:
- Understanding Physical Access Control
- Assessing Access Control Needs
- Access Control Strategies
- Compliance with Regulations and Standards
- Implementation and Advice
- Training and User Education
From the basics to the specifics, this guide will help you understand the core tenets of access control management, recognising its importance in the ecosystem of perimeter security, and granting it the respect that it deserves during the planning stage.
The team of experienced experts and consultants at ATG Access have spent decades providing perimeter security solutions to a global clientele, and can deliver experience-backed, impartial advice on the best access control practices and a range of different access control products.
The Concept of Physical Access Control
At its heart, physical access control utilises products, software, systems, and processes to both authorise and prevent the access of people and vehicles into a site or area. It is the interface of these different elements that can make access control seem more complex and harder to comprehend than it really is.
One way to think about access control is to liken it to a person. The body itself is the moving physical product (s). Arms could be bollards while legs are gates or blockers. The hydraulic system that makes sure the products can move up and down on demand and whenever required is like the heart and lungs – always beating and always breathing – ready to burst into activity.
Meanwhile The PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) represents the brain. It sends signals to the hydraulics to open, close, lower or raise as required. Like the human body, all the elements need to be kept in good condition so things work as they should. Keeping fit is the equivalent of proper servicing in this analogy, and mindfulness equal to ensuring software systems are patched and kept up to date.
Planning for Physical Access Control
When you’re starting to think about an access control system for a real-life application, it can be helpful to liken access control to people accessing a building – it makes the logic easy to follow: a locked door is the simplest form of access control, and only those with the key can enter. But if we take a step back, we can think about the perimeter security intrinsic to a building.
The walls form an impenetrable defence, which is analogous to proper perimeter security including bollards, barriers, and fencing within HVM schemes. Without even thinking about it, the building is secured enough that the access point is the only potential vulnerability, and thus, the focus of our attention. Security at the access points works in tandem with the perimeter around it, forming a semi-permeable perimeter that only authorised users can enter.
Similarly, when managing the security of a site the access control must work in complete synchronicity with the perimeter security. At the outset of any plans, thinking about how authorised persons and vehicles will enter the site securely is crucial for determining the overall level of security at the site. Just like having adequate and proportionate locks and doors is vital for protecting a building, having adequate and proportionate access control systems is essential for keeping your site as secure as possible.
Access control can form an extremely important part of any risk mitigation – perhaps more so than the surrounding bollards and fences. Due to the access point’s central role in entering and exiting the site, it can become a focal point for attackers – whether through brute force such as ramming attacks, or through subterfuge such as a Trojan attack. Getting access control security and protocols right is vital for ensuring that the overall level of protection at a site is appropriate.
Access control can come in a variety of forms and understanding the different parts – as well as the interplay between them – is one of the single most important aspect of site security. There’s no point in having top-of-the-line protection elsewhere if the main entry points aren’t delivering the right level of security.
Access control can comprise of:
- Gates
- Crash-rated Automatic Bollards
- Impact Rated Road Blockers
- Supporting Access Control Software & Hardware appropriate to the site
- Authorisation Protocols
- Staff Training
Having the right combination of physical products, supporting access control software and hardware as well as the know-how to use them correctly will augment the security at the rest of the site and give the best level of protection for any project. Understanding the different pieces and knowing how they come together in a coherent security plan, is the best way to ensure that your site has adequate and proportional protection.
Assessing Access Control Needs
As with any other aspect of site security, the first stage is always effective planning. Before knowing how to implement an effective plan, you need to conduct an all-inclusive site assessment, involving all access points and vulnerabilities.
At this point, working with an external security consultant is paramount. Having an impartial advisor come into the planning process as early as possible can give you a fresh set of eyes on a site, and with the experience that comes with being a security consultant, can give you a new way of thinking about the interplay between perimeter security and access control points.
What should a full site review consist of?
When performing a site assessment, you should be looking at every potential vulnerability, considering the uses and potential future uses of a site.
One of the main reasons for performing a thorough site assessment early in the process is to design plans that work effectively, and by uncovering every weak point and vulnerability within your access control systems (and how they integrate into a wider security plan), you can be sure that your project is less likely to require later adaptations and more likely to stay on budget.
Think about:
- How and where you intend vehicles and personnel to enter the site
- The roadway network surrounding entrances
- Any other potential ways to enter the site, including traverse routes
- The access protocols that must be followed
- The different stakeholders who require access to the site and at what times
- How to enforce access protocols
- How you intend to balance security with user convenience
While this list is a small part of the wider picture when it comes to assessing the site, it should give you an idea of the types of things that could come up during an initial site review.
Read our piece on designing perimeter security systems for a more in-depth look at site assessments.
Access Control Strategies
In general, access control strategy boils down to three main areas:
- Perimeter entry points
- Access authorisation
- Monitoring and surveillance
This guide will break down the importance of each and give an overview of the things to think about when it comes to designing access control strategies at your site.
Perimeter entry points
When you think of access control, this will be the bare bones of what you think of. Perimeter entry points – and protecting them utilising a variety of physical security measures – makes up the brunt of access control.
Whether using gates, turnstiles, bollards or vehicle barriers (or indeed for larger sites, a combination of the above), perimeter entry points can be protected with a variety of different physical security features that your security consultant will help specify at the appropriate risk level.
The most important aspect of security is that it is proportionate to the site. At a site that hosts Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) for instance, the highest possible specifications might be needed, but at other sites, the expense and costs to ease of use might make these measures impractical.
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We’re always more than happy to help with any questions you might have about ATG products, so get in touch with our team to find out more.
Access Authorisation
Access authorisation is like the tendons that hold the bones of physical security systems together. Without secure protocols to make sure that the physical security solution works as well as it can, the whole thing falls apart and exposes vulnerabilities.
When it comes to access authorisation, think about:
- Establishing policies for entering and exiting a place;
- Implementing strict procedures on using the systems correctly;
- Implementing authorisation mechanisms, such as cards, biometrics, or PIN codes – proportionate to the level of security necessary;
- Creating a hierarchy of access privileges based on roles and responsibilities.
Early engagement with security professionals will help you think about the proportionate response when it comes to your access authorisation protocols, but this is a helpful starting point to ensure synergy between the processes and products that you install.
Monitoring & Surveillance
The final step – but far from least important – in access control strategies, is continuous monitoring and surveillance.
Deploying surveillance cameras at access points, integrating real-time monitoring into access control systems, and implementing alarms and notifications for unauthorised access attempts all form the basis of surveillance strategies. Having adequate and proportionate surveillance systems in place will help you to keep an audit trail if necessary and tie the different elements of the security system together.
Note that these systems themselves need to have the appropriate security behind them to ensure that hostile actors cannot override them.
It’s important to consider the regulations and standards that you need to keep up to date with regarding your security, especially if you’re managing the security for a public place. Standards can change with legislation, and maintaining best practices can be difficult. Our guide to physical security standards discusses the key standards you’re likely to come across when choosing security products and explains what they mean in practical terms.
However, it’s also important to note that having a checklist approach to security must not lead to a lack of creativity.
However, as far as standards go, ensuring that you work with an accredited and trusted supplier is paramount – while over-specifying can be a problem, ensuring that the products you use are fully tested and up to the job is essential on all projects.
Our range of bollards, gates, and fences are crash-tested to British and International standards to give you peace of mind, safe in the knowledge that when you work with ATG Access, your security is up to scratch.
Implementation & Maintenance
At the stage where you have planned and specified the appropriate equipment and systems for your site, you know the technologies, processes, and procedures you plan to implement (as well as understand the regulations surrounding security). You’re now ready to enact the plans that you’ve developed, which involves proper implementation and installation.
Following installation, it’s important to think about maintenance. Developing a strict maintenance and inspection schedule is crucial for keeping your access control systems running smoothly, especially as they contain a multitude of moving parts.
A regular service and maintenance regime ensures that security equipment is functioning as it should. Bollards, for example, need to raise and lower properly; regular checks can therefore identify any issues that might affect this, such as mechanical failures or corrosion.
Malfunctioning security equipment can seriously compromise security, creating a vulnerability within a sites layered defence.
By contrast, well-maintained security equipment enhances security and ensures greater effectiveness. Ensuring that bollards and other security measures are in optimal condition bolsters security and personal safety, mitigating threats such as HVAs.
Read our piece on considerations when maintaining and servicing your security equipment here for more information.
Training & User Education
Training is a key part of proper usage. Adequate security relies on making sure that the employees using the equipment are familiar with the products and the systems to an intimate degree, and part of that is educating the workforce, supporting, and operating security systems.
Training security personnel on the access control procedures is also vital to the proportionate security in a place. With a staff that knows how to use the products correctly and knows the proper procedures, your security will be much more able to handle the rigours and challenges that occur.
Having a trained workforce can also filter through to user experience, with information about the processes and procedures more easily disseminated at the ground level. This will both improve the overall security and the user experience of your access points, greatly enhancing the overall security experience.
If you’re considering a security project in a public space in the near future, or if you’re already working on the plans for an upcoming project, check out our other hostile vehicle mitigation guides. We’ve pulled together a series of guides containing useful information designed to augment the planning process and to help you think about the most important steps to take before embarking on your security journey.
If you’re interested in a consultation on access control systems, or any aspect of perimeter security, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team. We’re always more than happy to discuss your needs and how ATG Access can solve them.
