Knowledge Centre
Security Podcast
12th July 2007 Duration: 7m 12s File size: 3.3MBDiscusses all types of security for your property including alarms, locks, cameras, roller-shutters, steel door plates and direct links to the police.
The MORE TH>N BUSINESS Podcast with Toby Langford.
Today – The Key to Security. And not just in the Office – In Transit as well.
Toby Langford – MORE TH>N BUSINESS: Computers - they get more and more powerful and they get lighter as time goes by. Little laptops are a real bonus for thieves. If you are wandering around with your nice new laptop bag there’s a very good chance there’s a nice new laptop in it!
Jane Markham - Podcats: Now that wouldn’t have been a problem 15 years ago! But some things do remain the same – keeping your business secure means physical barriers to stop thieves getting in, and good alarm systems just in case they do. Insurance underwriter Toby Langford:
Toby: Most businesses will have something sort of physical security. It might be locks, it might be shutters on windows, it might be bars on windows (you see these retractable grills now which actually look a lot better and some of them are pretty good). Another example might be steel plates on the back of doors – something called hinge bolts that protect doors that have hinges on the outside. There are all sorts of things that you might have which is physical security which is all about stopping thieves from getting in.
And the idea is to try to have physical security that complements and works well with an alarm system. And what this really means is that while someone is trying to break into your premises and you’ve made it really difficult for them because there are bars on the windows or whatever - what you want to have happened is your alarm has already triggered, and while they are working away trying to make their way into the premises the police, or a guarding company, or somebody like that who are already quite well aware of what’s going on and they’re on their way to your premises.
The ideal situation is that if it’s going to take the police ten minutes to get there it’s going to take the thief 20 minutes to get to the stuff you are really trying to protect. And that is the way you try to make your physical security and your alarm security work together. Jane: This sounds like a lot of effort to go to in time and expense – but worth it. Toby: Well if you’re a shopkeeper what you might be thinking about do I have cigarettes – do I stock cigarettes? Do I have wines and spirits? Those items are very theft attractive. You may stock mobile phones – they are theft-attractive too. You don’t have to have an awful lot of those before thieves get very interested. There are certain items that small business people might have that are extremely thief attractive - you’re not necessarily talking about having the crown jewels before you really need to think about your security.
Computer thefts are still prevalent. It’s not the same as in the 90s (where at one point we were being told that the silicon that was in your chips was more valuable by weight than diamonds) we’ve gone a long way past that. But it’s still the case that if you’ve got an office and you’ve got computers - there’s the security of the hardware which can be protected by lock down devices. You can get devices that pretty much enclose the whole hard drive part of your computer and make it very difficult for thieves to get it out.
Then there are cables you can use to lock your laptops down. There are other things that are just sensible precautions - like if you’ve got a laptop you might want to take laptops home at night, but if you don’t, at least lock it in a draw and ideally lock it in some sort secure cabinet. If you do that you’re removing temptation for opportunists - if somebody walks past and they can see it through the window and think they can get, get your laptop and get away in a minute and they are inclined to do so - that’s what they’re going to do. Jane: I suppose this is an example of how risks change. 25 years ago if a company had computers, they were great cumbersome things. Now we all have laptops Toby: The other thing is that that brings with it the risk of assault as well. The advice you’ll always get from an insurance company is in that situation - where you’re under threat - hand over the item. But then you’ve then got all the concerns about the data stored on the computer. You absolutely need to make sure that your computers are password protected and you probably need to think seriously about what information you actually keep on a laptop. Jane: Back in the office there are many different types of alarm system available. Toby: If you want a police response to your alarm then it needs to comply with certain standards. One of the main things they’ll be looking for is what they call a ‘confirmed activation’ of your alarm system.
Say for example someone bursts in through the front door that would be pretty likely to trigger some sort of alarm contact - at that point the alarm receiving centre will be aware that something has happened with your alarm system but they won’t immediately call the police. The next thing is that, if it is a genuine thief, they will hopefully move through some sort of movement detector or they may be picked up on an audio sensor or something like that and that will then trigger what’s called a ‘confirmed activation’. That then gives the alarm receiving centre the confidence to say to the police ‘we’ve got a live one here - you’d better get out there’.
Now what I’ve described there is called sequential confirmation but there are two other types of confirmation which are slightly rarer but they do exist out there. One of them is audio confirmation, where someone in the alarm receiving centre can actually hear what’s going on in your premises, and it’s quite interesting if you ever get to hear a recording of one of these, because you can actually hear the thieves whispering to each another. This is what then gets the alarm receiving centre to call the police. And then there’s video confirmation where they can say to the police – ‘yep the alarm’s triggered we can see someone with a swag bag and a stripy tee shirt!’ Jane: Would this be in addition to a bell going off or are they silent? Toby: That’s a really good point actually. If you’ve got an alarm system with just bells then they are usually instant bells. If you’ve got one of the more sophisticated types of alarm systems the police would prefer, in most cases, that there is some sort of delay (usually a ten minute delay) and this actually gives the police the opportunity to get out to the premises and catch somebody stealing.
There are some alarm systems that are incredibly loud and that makes it very very uncomfortable for thieves. And there are other systems – one of the ones that’s really emerged over the last few years is often known as a ‘smoke cloak’, where the premises will fill up with smoke as soon as someone breaks in and they just cannot see their hands in front of their face and it makes it very difficult for them to remove anything. I’ve seen these demonstrated at exhibitions and everyone I know who has been in one of these things says it’s absolutely terrifying. If you’d like more information about business security and insuring you business against theft go to www.morethanbusiness.com where you can also find other podcasts in this series.
I’m Jane Markham and this is a Podcats production for MORE TH>N BUSINESS.
And the idea is to try to have physical security that complements and works well with an alarm system. And what this really means is that while someone is trying to break into your premises and you’ve made it really difficult for them because there are bars on the windows or whatever - what you want to have happened is your alarm has already triggered, and while they are working away trying to make their way into the premises the police, or a guarding company, or somebody like that who are already quite well aware of what’s going on and they’re on their way to your premises.
The ideal situation is that if it’s going to take the police ten minutes to get there it’s going to take the thief 20 minutes to get to the stuff you are really trying to protect. And that is the way you try to make your physical security and your alarm security work together. Jane: This sounds like a lot of effort to go to in time and expense – but worth it. Toby: Well if you’re a shopkeeper what you might be thinking about do I have cigarettes – do I stock cigarettes? Do I have wines and spirits? Those items are very theft attractive. You may stock mobile phones – they are theft-attractive too. You don’t have to have an awful lot of those before thieves get very interested. There are certain items that small business people might have that are extremely thief attractive - you’re not necessarily talking about having the crown jewels before you really need to think about your security.
Computer thefts are still prevalent. It’s not the same as in the 90s (where at one point we were being told that the silicon that was in your chips was more valuable by weight than diamonds) we’ve gone a long way past that. But it’s still the case that if you’ve got an office and you’ve got computers - there’s the security of the hardware which can be protected by lock down devices. You can get devices that pretty much enclose the whole hard drive part of your computer and make it very difficult for thieves to get it out.
Then there are cables you can use to lock your laptops down. There are other things that are just sensible precautions - like if you’ve got a laptop you might want to take laptops home at night, but if you don’t, at least lock it in a draw and ideally lock it in some sort secure cabinet. If you do that you’re removing temptation for opportunists - if somebody walks past and they can see it through the window and think they can get, get your laptop and get away in a minute and they are inclined to do so - that’s what they’re going to do. Jane: I suppose this is an example of how risks change. 25 years ago if a company had computers, they were great cumbersome things. Now we all have laptops Toby: The other thing is that that brings with it the risk of assault as well. The advice you’ll always get from an insurance company is in that situation - where you’re under threat - hand over the item. But then you’ve then got all the concerns about the data stored on the computer. You absolutely need to make sure that your computers are password protected and you probably need to think seriously about what information you actually keep on a laptop. Jane: Back in the office there are many different types of alarm system available. Toby: If you want a police response to your alarm then it needs to comply with certain standards. One of the main things they’ll be looking for is what they call a ‘confirmed activation’ of your alarm system.
Say for example someone bursts in through the front door that would be pretty likely to trigger some sort of alarm contact - at that point the alarm receiving centre will be aware that something has happened with your alarm system but they won’t immediately call the police. The next thing is that, if it is a genuine thief, they will hopefully move through some sort of movement detector or they may be picked up on an audio sensor or something like that and that will then trigger what’s called a ‘confirmed activation’. That then gives the alarm receiving centre the confidence to say to the police ‘we’ve got a live one here - you’d better get out there’.
Now what I’ve described there is called sequential confirmation but there are two other types of confirmation which are slightly rarer but they do exist out there. One of them is audio confirmation, where someone in the alarm receiving centre can actually hear what’s going on in your premises, and it’s quite interesting if you ever get to hear a recording of one of these, because you can actually hear the thieves whispering to each another. This is what then gets the alarm receiving centre to call the police. And then there’s video confirmation where they can say to the police – ‘yep the alarm’s triggered we can see someone with a swag bag and a stripy tee shirt!’ Jane: Would this be in addition to a bell going off or are they silent? Toby: That’s a really good point actually. If you’ve got an alarm system with just bells then they are usually instant bells. If you’ve got one of the more sophisticated types of alarm systems the police would prefer, in most cases, that there is some sort of delay (usually a ten minute delay) and this actually gives the police the opportunity to get out to the premises and catch somebody stealing.
There are some alarm systems that are incredibly loud and that makes it very very uncomfortable for thieves. And there are other systems – one of the ones that’s really emerged over the last few years is often known as a ‘smoke cloak’, where the premises will fill up with smoke as soon as someone breaks in and they just cannot see their hands in front of their face and it makes it very difficult for them to remove anything. I’ve seen these demonstrated at exhibitions and everyone I know who has been in one of these things says it’s absolutely terrifying. If you’d like more information about business security and insuring you business against theft go to www.morethanbusiness.com where you can also find other podcasts in this series.
I’m Jane Markham and this is a Podcats production for MORE TH>N BUSINESS.
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