Page 22 - Campus Security & Life Safety, May/June 2020

By Despina Stamatelos
Challenging Temporary Access
Trusted Identity
Solutions that withstand uninvited guests
HQuality/Shutterstock.com
When it comes to safeguarding any educational facility, restricting access—particularly to secured areas—is vital. Regardless of size, every campus must be able to keep unauthorized entities out. But managing access is more complex than that. Increas- ingly, campuses are having to provide per- manent employees with limited access to secure facilities as well as temporary or sus- tained access rights to visitors.
In the past, providing temporary access to any part of a campus required a series of man- ual steps that lacked clear oversight and trace- ability. Security operators were frequently tasked with tracking down the appropriate department heads to get permission and then manually changing access rights in the system.
When it came time to revoke this permis-
sion—at the end of a contract, for example— the process relied on memory or post-it notes. Additionally, there was no way to accurately track who had access to which secure facilities and when.
The reality is that many of today’s access control systems were not designed with this functionality in mind. They are incredibly effective at controlling access to a particular facility. But, because they are static in nature, they are not as efficient at managing access rights or enforcing security policies. This can present significant challenges, particularly when dealing with an increasingly tempo- rary workforce.
Meeting these challenges can be made much easier when campuses implement a solution that focuses on Physical Identity and Access Management (PIAM). The ques-
“By using a PIAM solution, a campus can help facilitate the movement of employees and visitors through its facilities.”
22 campuslifesecurity.com | MAY/JUNE 2020