Monday, July 2, 2012

Safer to be Secure


Access Control Report
Real Time Transactions
To begin with in simple words, safety requires you to be open, while security demands from you to be closed. And together, they optimize themselves to form an intelligent building management solution. But the question remains, how do we choose the level of optimization and where do we draw the line.

The answer lies in case-wise analysis of practical situations where safety and security are of high importance. And it begins with the various recent cases of fire break-outs in important government buildings. The word ‘Safety’ is regularly associated with Fire Safety systems and Evacuation plans. But we should look at the cause behind most of such fire incidents, and we’ll able to bridge the connection between safety and security.

Let’s get down to facts. In a recent panel discussion at iFSAI, with Mr. TRA Krishnan, has closely reviewed more than 300 fire incidents and Mr. Vikram Kalbag from FM Global, the popular commercial and property insurance company, responding to my question mentioned that majority of fire incident cases take place in the month of March. Though there was no direct mention of any concluding statement stemming from this fact, its our duty to read between the lines. There is nothing special in the weather of March which makes it prone to short-circuits and fire inducing accidents. But yes, it is the “result” month of final documentation of financial year, its the month most important for you if there is corruption prevalent in your mindset.

I am not getting into any conspiracy theory here, but small fire incidents claiming nothing beyond loss of property happening in March, clearly have a different angle to it. And this angle is sabotage. And there is one way to prevent the sabotage, and that is security. Biometric Access Control Systems combined with CCTV Surveillance ensure deterrence of vandalizing elements specially when threat is more of internal, and even if there is vandalism, proof is always there thus solving the mystery behind fire easily. 

The famous proverb coined by the Dutch “Prevention is better than cure” is also valid in the discussions on safety and security. If you are secure enough, safety becomes secondary as the need of the same is reduced. Security not only prevents wrong action but also helps you track the reason behind the incident. Some time ago, speaking at an event, Mr. Rajan Luthra, Director of Reliance Security Solutions Ltd, a subsidiary of RIL, had emphasized on benefits of security automation with real life examples of not only having detected few theft incidents but also successfully recovered the stolen assets. It has been experienced in our office too when we had a theft in our office and the culprit was caught easily using access control records, and stolen assets were recovered in less than 3 hours of incident.

Real time transactions captured by security and Network systems are vital at times,  those who watch popular TV Series Crime Patrol or read crime stories in Mid-Day will agree that most cases are solved using one or other such real time transactions left behind by either mobile phone usage, ATM Transaction, CCTV or electronic security records. even professional investigators admit that its was near impossible to crack some of such complex cases in absence of these transactions.

To counter wiser instincts  of today’s culprits we need smarter and multiple systems to be active together,  thanks to  technology and world of cloud and IP its possible Today. while Access Control systems can act as powerful deterrent for such incidents to happen as CCTV becomes handy in post incident investigations such that recording done in Mantralaya of Mumbai can also be seen by officials in Delhi, even after the Access Control & CCTV system are completely destroyed, means investigators can reach to real reasons of incident in almost no time, effortlessly just by connecting clues available from multiple systems.

All this reinforces our belief in the power of electronic security systems once  thought fully implemented and maintained.

We have standards defined by Insurance Agencies for management of safety in buildings. Maintenance of these standards is of high importance and undergoes regular audits. Since this post mentions facts which establish the integral need of Security products and services in order to ensure better safety, the insurers must also establish standards for security and push for their implementation. And regular audits of the same must be mandatory as well. This should be the first step towards making our buildings and complexes safer from fire, vandalism and other calamities. 

Before ending this post, let me give a sideways reference to the old hare and turtle story. Years ago, we were taught slow and steady wins the race, and hence a slow turtle can defeat the quick hare in a race. Situation is not very different today though there is a twist. Today the hare loses not because of its overconfidence but because it has a soft skin and there are lots of spiky obstacles in the path. If we want to win the race, we must try and put a turtle shell around us which makes us secure from any harms during the journey even though it makes us heavy and tougher to run. The need of running fast is secondary, only after we have secured ourselves. We started with simple words, and am ending with a simple proverb “It’s Safer to be Secure”!

To learn more about how other enterprises in your domain having safer environment by having smarter security implemented contact us today http://www.solus.co.in/contact or 

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9 comments:

  1. Very informative & impressive write up..

    French Proverb :-
    Danger is next neighbor to security, choice is your...
    Trust not to God but upon good security.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Deepak,

      You said it right. we cant assume others to be caring for our security.

      Delete
  2. Well Said, and your ending note is truly practical in current situation.
    Our buildings need to have additional shield of CCTV, BMS and other tech, it might or might not be heavy on cost, but to be safer it’s required.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Utkarsh,

      it costs fractional in comparison to the possible losses in case of such event, apart from direct losses on assets, we incur severe damage thru business interruption and "reputation and image loss" .

      Delete
  3. Enriching facts.

    Integrated Security systems is truly a need in today's era to maintain healthy and peaceful environment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Tushar,

      Thats correct, Integration is really a key to ensure effectiveness of such implementation, and its quite possible today, most subsystem do offer technical compatibility to interact with others by design, what's needed is a professional implementation and serious upkeep demand by the user.

      Delete
  4. Very interesting, thank you for the article
    It’s Safer to be Secure, true

    ReplyDelete
  5. Informative write up.. Keep posting..

    ReplyDelete