INFORMATION SECURITY: PHYSICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY

What is Physical and Environmental Security in Information Systems?

As the name suggests, physical security refers to methods implemented to keep people from entering physical premises that give them access to information. An obvious example is having locks, alarms, and perhaps security guards on your premises, which means only authorized personnel can enter.

Corporate environmental control is a measure taken to protect your company’s information and resources from environmental damage. Floods, earthquakes, fires, or extreme weather conditions could all pose a threat (but are not limited to these). The information and operations of your organization may be disrupted by any of these threats. There may also be a lack of access to filtered water and gas due to outages, communication issues, or power outages.

Importance of Environmental Controls

Information security involves environmental controls because if environmental controls are not in place, there could be a risk of losing important information or data. The office of your organization may be at risk of losing information if an environmental force causes a power outage.

Controls for environmental hygiene include ventilation (natural and mechanical), filtration, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, and other air purification techniques. It is vital to realize that if administrative controls (policies and work practices) are insufficient, environmental controls may not eliminate all risks.