Developing a Security Site Assessment is necessary to ensure physical and digital safety. Learn how to approach it so you can protect yourself as best as possible.

Jodi Rell put it best — “At the end of the day, the goals are simple: safety and security”. We all want to be safe, secure, and free of impending danger at all times. However, given the age we live in — the internet age — it’s almost impossible to remove ourselves from the reach of potential risks, threats, and vulnerabilities. 

That’s why we undertake risk assessments — to identify loopholes in our physical and digital security strategies that we need to correct. The same goes for Security Site Assessments which we’ll take a good look at here.

But first, what does a Security Site Assessment mean?

What is a Security Site Assessment, and Why is it Important?

A Security Site Assessment formally examines your facility’s overall security program. It takes an in-depth look at all aspects of your security program to identify weaknesses and find opportunities to reduce costs and make security operations more efficient.

A Security Site Assessment is essential for the following reasons:

• Discovering loopholes and areas in need of improvement in your security strategies and security program

• Uncovering ways to reduce security-related costs

• Determining ways to handle security weaknesses and challenges properly and professionally

• Planning for future security improvements and upgrades

• Gaining the capacity to act proactively on security issues rather than reactively.

So if you’re looking to strategize more when it comes to your security program, be it residential or corporate, you need to undertake a security site assessment; however, one crucial factor to note is that contrary to popular belief, security site assessment is not limited to just physical security; cyber security should also be taken into account, given the fact that information losses can occur digitally as well as physically.

So, how can you adequately develop a tip-top security site assessment that factors both physical and cyber security? The process is highlighted as follows:

1. Map your Assets

You can’t develop a security site assessment without thoroughly understanding your personal and corporate assets. So, the first step to creating any practical security site assessment is to generate a complete map of potentially vulnerable assets.

Here, you should identify both your physical assets (land, machinery, buildings, tools, equipment, vehicles, gold, silver, or any other form of material economic resource) and digital assets (documents, audio, videos, logos, slide presentations, spreadsheets, and websites) that could be prone to attacks of any kind.

2. List out Potential Risks and Vulnerabilities

This is the foundation on which your security site assessment is built; you’ll need to take a good look at your security program and strategy used for your residence, office, or facility, preferably with expert assistance, to identify any potential risk or vulnerability that may affect your assets.

Knowing the types of risks your residence or company may be exposed to based on the nature of your business or where your home is located, among other factors, will help guide the assessment process so these risks and vulnerabilities are not missed.

It will also be helpful to prioritize the risks you identify, as you can identify more risks than you can address at once. In such instances, it’s advisable to prioritize risks by giving each vulnerability a risk rating so you can prepare your remediation plans accordingly.

3. Have an Assessment Team in Place

Looking into security threats is never a one-person job, so before conducting a security site assessment, you should have an experienced assessment team on the ground to help you identify risks and vulnerabilities you may not know or even understand. The team will assist you in conducting the security site assessment and addressing the threats and vulnerabilities identified after.

4. Conduct Site Assessment

Now you know the risks and vulnerabilities you may be exposed to, the next step is to assess these risks to understand how severe they are for your facility. This is the main stage in developing a Security site assessment; you gauge each risk’s probability and see which would occur frequently. You also get to identify any new threats and vulnerabilities in your security program.

A thorough security site assessment will include inspecting critical areas of your environment — residential or corporate. You can look for security flaws in and around entry and exit pathways to your residence or business environment, your cloud encryption and data protection measures, etc.

You’ll also get to conduct full-fledged maintenance checks on your security strategies at this stage, as systems not maintained regularly can carry potential risks of threats.

5. Review Monitoring and Surveillance Systems

This has more to do with physical than cyber security, but it’s an important step nonetheless. You want to ensure your monitoring and surveillance systems are in place before conducting a security site assessment. 

Check if all CCTV cameras, smoke alarms, emergency systems, and equipment are well-aligned and functioning correctly. Make sure they’re tamper-proof and out of reach of intruders. Also, ensure your systems are organized to combat different threat levels for added safety.

6. Review operating procedures in your Company

If you’re undertaking a security site assessment for your company, you will need to review the measures put in place for workers at the company. 

Do you have greeters at the front doors or security staff strategically placed throughout your facility? Do you have any procedures to ensure no one enters the building after hours? Do you have access control measures for protecting sensitive company information? Do you have an emergency plan in case of a robbery or a bomb threat?

These are some considerations you will need to make concerning how your business operates before conducting a full-on assessment; these will expose you to any risks and vulnerabilities your company may face due to its laxity in addressing needed security measures.

7. Review IT and Data Security measures

This focuses more on cybersecurity rather than physical security. Your data or information can also be seen as your life itself, and the wrong persons gaining access to them could be very detrimental. This is why in developing a security site assessment, you must be particular about assessing your IT and data security measures.

What is the state of your IT infrastructure? What network-level security protocols do you have in place? How are you ensuring compliance with shared security responsibilities in cloud services? Is your company data subject to the least privilege or zero trust access controls? Do you use network segmentation to limit data access? Do you have robust identity management processes?

These are some of the factors you’ll need to consider. A good review of your cybersecurity measures will also expose you to risks and vulnerabilities in that regard, helping you know what risks to assess and handle to prevent any future dangers.

8. Prepare to Document the Results

A security site assessment will present results on your residential or corporate security program’s vulnerability. When this happens, you don’t want to lose any of the information you get for whatever reason, so you should have a mechanism to document the results you get from the assessment.

You could document results physically or digitally; in such instances, you’d also have to cater to how you’ll protect the results so they’re not lost. The results you get from the assessment will be the cornerstone on which your security loophole remediation is based, so it’s best to treat these results as a top priority.

Using these considerations, building a security site assessment program should be a walk in the park, but in some areas, it’s not the same case; you may need expert advice and technical assistance in developing an assessment that covers both your physical and digital assets best, while also providing remediation plans that can adequately handle your peculiar security needs.

If you require such technical assistance, look no further than us at Security Pro, we’re in the business of researching and connecting you with the best professionals offering security site assessment services. With the organizations in our network, you can rest assured that your security program will be assessed optimally, due intelligence will be maintained, and you’ll be guided on the best ways to remedy the loopholes in your security program.

So why not book a free consultation with us or contact us to get started today? We’re buzzing to help you develop a security site assessment that covers your security concerns on all fours — physically and digitally.