Page 20 - Security Today, April 2022

“As Data Centers and Airports evaluate their security operations, lessons can be learned and shared from leaders within both industries, as each seek to protect their people, property, and reputation.”
rity doesn’t have time to focus on recruiting, on training, on the regulatory side of licensing staff. They lack the resources that an ACTS has to staff appropriately and train.”
Sargent believes a hybrid security program which combines in-house, propriety staff and outside, contract security enables collaboration in shaping the security program’s operations.
“With an in-house security force at a data center, they have their own best practices,” Sargent said. “Contract security has their own best practices. Who is to say that some of their best practices don’t belong with us and some of our best practices don’t belong with them? The only way we’ll be able to come to that is to sit down and collaborate on the security plan.”
Detection of Prohibited Items
In the days following the tragic events of September 11th, the FAA and TSA implemented a list of prohibited items which can- not go beyond the airport security screening point. As security
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threats have evolved, that list has changed.
“At an airport, we’re looking for things that can cause harm
to the human element,” says Sargent. “Data centers are looking for things that can cause harm to the technology. That level of safety and security can be handled in a similar fashion through physical searches.”
Sargent recommends that data centers create a list of prohibited items, deciding if thumb drives, cell phones, portable hard drives, and laptops are permitted within their facilities. If not, security should conduct physical searches of guests and their belongings with metal detectors to ensure those devices do not enter. These policies enable security to protect the data center from potential intrusion through systems whose work is not visible.
“Backdoors are a real thing whether it is a corporation with a physical back door or a virtual backdoor into a company’s intel- lectual property,” says Sargent. “The way that backdoors are cre- ated is by direct access to their infrastructure. Limiting access for those tools can prevent incidents of intellectual theft.”
As Data Centers and Airports evaluate their security operations, lessons can be learned and shared
from leaders within both industries, as each
seek to protect their people, property, and
reputation.
Kevin Tomich is the director of business develop- ment and marketing at ACTS.
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