Chapter 7 - Standards Convergence

Abstract

This chapter’s material includes four different types of standards—all of which have a common factor: In any organization they are usually applied or used within either the physical security or information technology (IT) group, but not in both. The subject of standards is worthy of attention. Standards establish minimum levels of quality; provide economies in training, installation, service, and support; and ensure that devices and systems can work together. Thus IT departments have long used internal standards for corporate computers and networks. This is something generally lacking in corporate physical security systems. Some internal standards are standards of practice, which simply means having a specific way of doing things to ensure correctness and completeness. These standards are often documented as named procedures, standard operating procedures, or job aids, which are instructions for how to do a particular task. Because physical security’s electronic systems are based on IT, security managers can benefit by applying internal IT expertise to their physical security systems.