This week’s topic will be part two of the topic physical controls centering around the idea of facilities control instead of perimeter security on the meetup I attended a few weeks ago. Again, why are physical controls important? It is important because all the digital controls would be useless if someone was able to break into either stealing or sabotage any assets.
As noted in some of my previous posts. One thing an attacker will try to do is to damage or stall your operations without any intention of stealing any assets. So, what can you do to prevent or minimizing the damage to your facilities? Facilities would include all your office space with computers, hardware, assets, etc. Below are some of the areas that need to be planned out with facilities and cybersecurity.
Fire suppression — Before this event, I always thought there were only two types of extinguishers, water from sprinklers and the nitrogen one in the big red tanks we see all over the place. I thought either one would work in any fires. However, at least 5 classes are depending on where you and but it is relatively the same classifications. The organization has to be careful about what they use because it could further damage any assets they have and/or delaying operations which is what attackers want.
Class A — involves ordinary combustibles materials such as wood, paper, plastics, and rubber. Use of water or foam extinguishers to put out.
Class B — involves flammable gas and liquids such as gasoline, oils, paint, and tar. Use of foam, dry powder, Co2 extinguishers to put out. Have to be careful because the use of water might spread flaming material.
Class C — involves electrical equipment. Should use Co2 or dry powder. This class also needs to be careful because water or foam extinguishers can conduct electricity potentially making the situation more dangerous for your assets as well as the people. If electricity is confirmed to be shut off then water or foam can be used.
Class D — involves combustible metals or alloys. Should use dry powder. Similar to other situations, foam or water extinguishers can potentially increase the damage.
Class K — involves cooking oil. Just as you shouldn’t use water to extinguish class B fires. Should use Co2 or foam to extinguish.
Besides handheld extinguishers. The types of sprinklers should be planned. Water sprinklers shouldn’t be used all over the office as it might damage equipment within data centers. There should be special hazard protection systems that may rely on Co2 or other gases. This has to be careful because it flushes out all oxygen out of the room which will cause people to pass out.
HVAC should also be used not only to help with ventilation, heating, and air cooling for people. It should be used for data centers to prevent damage or outage.
Shielding should also be used on cables. It reduces interferences between each other and also preventing devices to pick up the electromagnetic waves.
With facilities hardening techniques in place. This will further prevent attackers to bring down your system for outages or delay of services for your customers.
