Asset Protection Program

Asset Protection
• A set of techniques, strategies and laws that aims to protect assets
belonging to an individual or enterprise.
• It works based on the various factors that determines the degree of
protection required.

• Techniques: Security Specialists

• Strategies: Enterprise owners Business strategy
• Laws: Legal framework of the country
Physical protection System- Concept and
Application
• A physical security design should start from the inception and careful
application of basic design principles from the beginning to end.
• A competent security practitioner should be integrated with
architects, engineers, project directors and other people responsible
for the operations of the facility.
• it is crucial for the security specialist to have interactions with the
business owner.
All these (above) will help the security specialist understand and align
himself with the facility's mission and purpose from the beginning and
conceptualize the appropriate security measures to support the
facility’s operations when it comes into existence.
Background Study Prior to Determining the
Appropriate Design Concepts
• A security professional should ideally be employed since the
inception.
• But, we often find that a security specialist is involved when the
structural designs are in progress or has already been completed.
• In such cases, while applying basic design concepts, a security
professional must equip himself with adequate background
information and complete their personal study which may include the
following:-
a. A critical examination of the site
b. A detailed understanding of the structural design and layout
c. An understanding of the key stakeholders, mission, objectives, and
operational procedures
d. An understanding of the assets, threats on the assets, vulnerabilities, and
risks related to the assets.
e. An understanding of offender’s likely strategies
f. An understanding of the local crime scenario and crime trends related to
the industry
g. An understanding of the regulations, industry standards, and laws which
may govern the security measures.
Reasons for Critical examination of the site
• A critical examination of the site is important for several reasons.
• Every site has its own characteristics.
• Some characteristics augment in overall security effort while others
may adversely impact the application of security design.
• A site will have its own characteristics when it is fully developed with
all its structural components and is operational activities.
• Along with physical security threats, the site may be subjected to
natural disasters due to geographical influences.
Reasons for Detailed understanding of the
structural design and layout
• The next thing a security professional should assume is that the structural
design and layout.
• It will have definite bearings on the behavior of its users. For example,
well-planned structures are work-friendly while poor structures and layout
may affect the work environment as well as make it difficult to defend.
• The structure and layout designed for an organization is aimed to perform
certain activities for employees and all other stakeholders.
• A security professional should craft a design such that the activities
performed in the given organization is not hindered by poor security
design.
• That means all the security activities are carried out without causing
discomfort to its users.
Understanding of the key stakeholders, mission,
objectives, and operational procedures
• Outline of the project
• Type of business
• Security understanding and attitude
Understanding of the assets, threats on the assets,
vulnerabilities, and risks related to the assets
• The organization utilizes its assets/resources to perform several activities
which are usually exposed to many kinds of threats.
• Understanding the vulnerabilities of these assets which could potentially
be converted to actual risks, significantly reducing the outcome of the
organization is essential.
• Moreover, in the beginning, the security professional does not have any
historical data to understand the crime patterns and relies mainly on a
qualitative assessment to predict the likely security concerns that may
arise.
• This may be assessed using the local and relevant industry crime trends.
Additionally, the security professional must take relevant laws and
regulations and industry standards into account while progressing with the
design to ensure that there are no conflicts.
Understanding of offender’s likely strategies
• Security professionals should have proper assumptions about the
offenders, their intentions, capabilities, and likely tactics to commit
an offense against the facility.
• If they can reasonably identify the adversary, and their design to
commit a crime, necessary countermeasures can be devised to face
them easily.
How to Understanding of the local crime scenario
and crime trends related to the industry
• History
• Local sources interview
• Newspaper cutting
• Meeting local police station
Understanding of the regulations, industry
standards, and laws which may govern the
security measures
• Industry type
• Government regulations already effective
• Local culture
• Once all these factors are considered, the security professional should
consult with the business owner or organizational head to determine
appropriate security posture for the facility.
• The security posture can be characterized as high security, medium
security or low security which directly links to the security budget
the organizational owner is willing to approve.
Design Principles
Design principles are the application of the basic security concepts.
• The basic security concepts help to formulate a security strategy for
the organization.
• Generally, the design principles are as follows:-
4D’s –
a. Deterrence,
b. Detection,
c. Delay,
d. Deny
Deterrence

• Deterrence occurs by implementing measures that are perceived by

potential adversaries as too difficult to defeat.
• It makes the facility an unattractive target, so the adversary abandons
or never attempts an attack.
• Examples of deterrents are the presence of security guards in parking
lots, adequate lighting at night, the posting of signs, and the use of
barriers, such as bars on windows.
Detection
Detection is the discovery of an adversary action.
It includes sensing covert or overt actions.
The measures of effectiveness for the detection function are the
a. Probability of sensing adversary action
b. Time required for reporting.
A critical detection point is where the delay time remaining exceeds the
response time. (All reports are welcome)
(Adversary event takes place before REPORT was made – Unacceptable)
Delay

Delay is the slowing down of adversary progress.

It can be accomplished by
a. Personnel (Guards)
b. Barriers,
c. Locks and other structural measures which will hinder the progress of
an adversary.
Deny or Response

The response function consists of the actions taken by the response force to
prevent adversary success.
The response can include both interruption and neutralization.
Interruption is defined as a sufficient number of response force personnel
arriving at the appropriate location to stop the adversary’s progress.
It includes communication to the response force of accurate information
about adversary actions and the deployment of the response force.
Neutralization describes the actions and effectiveness of the responders after
interruption. ( Could include law enforcing agency if appropriate)
• Defense In Depth and Balanced Protection
• Defense In Depth refers to developing security layers around the assets that
are to be protected.
• These layers may be one or more and must be placed in a balanced way
such that an adversary approaching the targeted asset from any direction
needs to face a similar number of obstacles which results in an equal
amount of delay from all directions.
• The action and time to penetrate each layer may differ.
• The layers are constructed with different combinations of barriers so that
the adversary must employ separate means to defeat each barrier which
will cause uncertainty in their mind.
• This will also prolong the time for delay.
• Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED)
• Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) implies:
• Designing the environment in a manner that will achieve natural
surveillance, natural access control, natural territorial reinforcement,
legitimate activity support, and maintenance to reduce crime by
environmental design.
• Point VS Area Security
• In a point security approach, assets are guarded strongly while the
perimeter is weakly held. Bank security. Vault is guarded strongly
where as perimeter entry is relatively easy
• The opposite is applicable when it comes to area security, i.e, the
perimeter is strongly held while there is less emphasis on the
protection of assets. Security of hospitality industry
• In some cases, a mixed approach is advocated.
Crime Triangle
• The crime triangle is explained differently by various security thinkers.
• However, generally it is assumed that a crime will take place where
there is a motivated offender who gets an opportunity to commit a
crime and does not have fear of being apprehended.
• While designing the security layout, this concept can be placed to

A. Reduce opportunities
B. Increase the possibility of being apprehended.
• Life Safety Issue - Safety VS Security
• An organization may often face safety issues which may be natural or man-made.
• Natural causes may include fire, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, building
collapse, landslides, etc,
• While man-made causes may be arson, bomb threats, sabotage, etc.
• In case of safety hazards, it may require evacuating the building. To make this
progress faster, a higher number of exit points must be included in the design.
But, a higher number of entries or exits creates a security threat and makes the
complex difficult to defend.
• Therefore, it is important to strike a balance between the two at the designing
phase.
• Importance of Zoning
• The building plant or processing unit may not have equal importance to
carry out the business functions.
• The important element of the business which must remain operational will
warrant more protection and group into a separate zone.
• The access to that zone should be restricted to only authorized individuals.
Other important elements of the business which usually conducts the
supporting activities of the business may be within the controlled zone and
limited access is granted to authorized individuals.
• The area which is open for all the stakeholders is termed as the
unrestricted zone. The concept of zoning may be applied over an area
within a building facility.
• Harmony and Conflict Avoidance
• Security measures employed should be in harmony so that one
compliments the other.
• Sometimes, electronic security systems when placed in an unplanned
manner may create unnecessary conflicts.
• The security patrol force may face problems if the lighting design is not
supportive to observe the perpetrators without being noticed.
• A security officer may unwillingly trigger an intruder alarm while inspecting
the perimeters which may cause unnecessary alarms.
• Another way in which a conflict may arise is if the overall security
procedure does not support the organizational mission and culture.
• Accountability
• Security design principles are applied such that in case of any
incident, adequate traces are left to conduct an investigation and
determine how, when, why, and by whom the incident was initiated.
• Therefore, during the design stage, investigative measures such as
CCTV, alarm system, deployment of guard forces, etc are placed with
utmost caution.
Hazardous materials
Additional Design Elements

• Every business process and organization is unique and is exposed to

different kinds of threats. Therefore, while planning and designing security
for an organization, those differences must be taken into consideration.

• In various types of manufacturing plants which use different types of

hazardous materials, a key consideration is to place those materials with
adequate safety measures so that any sabotage or accidents related to
the hazardous materials does not pose any threat to the entire facility .
• These can be contained and segmented to reduce its effects.
 Contingency Plans
• The security measures at times may fail which necessitates contingency
plans to conduct facility operation by alternative means.
• To run the security components, redundancy must be planned. For
example, backup power, fail-over servers, etc.
Performance Vs Features of Security equipment
• While designing, elements used must be evaluated against some
standard criteria. This criteria can be based on performance or
features.
• A performance based criteria should get preference over feature
based criteria.
• At times the features stated in various security equipment are over
exaggerated and may not function smoothly or in harmony with other
security equipment.
Integrating People, Process, and Technology
• Every effective security strategy combines people, process, and
technology into an integrated manner to protect assets.
• The people involved in supervising security efforts must be
well-trained and capable of handling all the employed technology
following set policies and procedures.
• Over-emphasis on technology or on people should be avoided.
• Awareness training for all employees or facility users should be
arranged to make the security system more efficient and
user-friendly.
Continuous Development

• The security design concept and its application should be applied to

cope with changes within the premise or accommodate changes
within close vicinity of the premise.
• The changes in rules, regulations, or laws should also be
accommodated and training should be organized to adhere with
those changes.
Barriers

• Barriers are natural or manmade that obstructs, control, or direct the

movements of People, vehicle, animal, or goods intended to enter a
facility authorized or unauthorizedly.
• It discourages accidental, forceful, or penetration by stealth.
• Structural Barriers generally include physical barriers such as perimeter walls, fences, etc.,
electronic security systems such as man-height turnstiles, or human barricades such as
force employed as a riot control measure.
• Besides natural barriers like water bodies either natural or artificially placed also are taken
while designing barriers against intruders. Well-planned plants or vegetation such as
thorny bushes/ shurbs also have the barrier value. Building walls may form the part of the
perimeter. In the inner areas building walls, doors windows, roofs, ceilings, or grills used to
protect open vents are considered as barriers for anyone trying to breech the security
measures to reach a specific asset.
• Nature and purpose of the barrier largely affect barrier choice and its construction
materials, height, etc. Barrier or perimeter wall of a correctional facility/ prison will
differ from a barrier planned for a commercial plant. Barrier is not only designed and
placed for external threats but also helps the organization from malicious or sabotage
activities of from insiders.
Walls
• Walls are mostly used as perimeter protection in Bangladesh for various
reasons.
• Unlike developed countries where the generally chain-link fence is a
popular option in the context of Bangladesh asset owners prefer to
construct a wall as it is relatively long-lasting, the cost of construction is not
as high as it is in the developed country and the wall gives a sense of
ownership and culturally, we value a wall as a symbol of ownership and
consider fences as a temporary measure. However, trespass law and its
application in Western countries and in Bangladesh are not the same.
• A wall at times creates an obstruction for the smooth application of CPTED
concept since it restricts the view or capacity to observe from inside the
property. In most cases we see a business owner caters high raised post and
electronic surveillance system to cover those deficiencies.
• Walls are considered more resistant to penetration and formidable
obstruction than the fence.
• Having a perimeter wall, a propitiator cannot observe activities inside the
premises. This reduces the vulnerability of assets being stolen or
sabotaged.
• The height of the wall varies as most of the walls in Bangladesh are
constructed by the advice of engineers not by the security professionals.
Generally, a 6/7 feet wall is constructed with a top guard of three barbed
wire strings 6 inches apart from each other which adds another 1.5 feet
thus the wall height becomes 7.5 feet to 8.5 feet.
• Different situation demands a different type of wall height. For example,
the perimeter height of a correction facility or jail may be about 18 feet
with an electrical fence on the top for alarm and deterrent purposes.
Types of Wall
• Brick Wall
• Decorative
• High-security wall
• Reinforced concrete wall
• Earth wall
Decorative fencing can be made of various types of metal and poles
or top raols etc are planned based on the strength it needs to stop an
adversary. Barbed wire top guards are also placed above to
discourage climbing attempts.
Fence

Chain Link Fencing

• Among all other perimeter protection chain link fence comes a
natural choice to a business owner because of the advantage that
fence construction is less expensive and less time-consuming.
• It also serves as some protection if properly installed and provides the
scope to observe from either side. Observation is an important
element of natural surveillance of Crime Prevention through
Environmental Design.
• Chain link fence is a kind of interwoven fabric without any ties or
knots
• Generally, 9-gauge wire mesh is used for most of the applications. 9
gauge is considered to be used for light commercial fence purposes
whereas 11 gauge is even thinner. For better strength 6-gauge wire
mesh is used. The gap between interwoven wire gets a diamond
shape and usually presents an inch of space. To make the wire mesh
durable wire mesh is usually coated with zinc, aluminum plastic, or
polymer.
• Whatever wire mesh or height one selects to construct a chain-link
fence basically to protect against accidental breech or breech by
stealth or force. Though it's not a denying fact that if the proper alarm
and response force is not available an intruder usually takes less than
a second to cross such a barrier
• Cable System Fencing
• High-strength cable fixed parallel can form a kind of fence. This type
of fence can also be used against vehicles ramming into a perimeter.
This fence establishes a line of property and can be used to stop the
entry of bigger animals. The typical installation requirement of this
kind of fence separates them from another kind of fence generally
used for security purposes.
• Expanded Metal and Welded Wire Fabric Fences

• As we know chain link fence meshes are not tied or do not have knots.
Expanded metal links are welded and give the look of a grill or iron net. This
is less expensive than a grill fence but more expensive than a chain-link
fence.

• This is heavier than chain-link and difficult to cut by wire cutters.

Aluminum, stainless steel, or galvanized steel are usually used to prepare
this kind of welded fabric. This is generally giving an aesthetic look and
usually used in lower-security applications.
• Iron grill fence
• Iron grill fence is a little heavier than the expanded metal fence and
made of cast iron grill. This can be painted to overcome the weather
effect
Wooden Fences
A wooden fence is a temporary measure used in very low-security
applications. Barbed wire razor blades can be fixed with wooden fence
to increase its level of protection and make it difficult to climb.
Electric Security Fencing
• An electric security fence is either fixed on the top of the wall or fixed
in combination with a chain-link fence. The flow of electricity is
non-lethal and follows international standards.
• They do not use electric current and do not produce severe shock
rather produce a sense of irritation to discourage anyone to go to its
contact. Thus produces a fear factor. This electrical fence helps to
detect an intruder and acts as an alarm system and can be integrated
with surveillance system.
Barbed Wire and Razor Wire Applications
Barbed wire with razor blades either can be placed just before a fence
or used as top guard or rolls of those can be placed on the ground to
make a quick protective fence to discourage someone from going
through those
Building Wall

• In the interior area, after the perimeter, every premise has some
buildings, warehouses or other kinds of facilities to conduct their
business operation. The building walls could be made of brick,
reinforced concrete, expanded metal/ concrete, clay, corrugated
asbestos, metal sheet, etc. depending on the use of the facility.
Reinforce concrete wall at times placed successively for better
protection in high security application. Proper care also taken when
the wall becomes part of a vault.
Doors
• 1 ¾ in thick (44 mm) with 16 to 18-gauge steel surfaces where the core remains hollow or
made of composite materials. Placing the type of door hinge and its location is also
important as Building is generally made of wall or reinforced concrete as such the door in
the building becomes the weaker link and generally an adversary targets a door. The door
may be used for many purposes such as a standard door made of wood, the standard
industrial door made of metal, an attack or bullet resistance door, a vehicle access door
for a garage, a high-security vault door, or maybe in the perimeter area or in a common
place entry turnstiles revolving door may be used.

• Vault door has its own specification which is discussed in a separate chapter. However
usual exterior doors are defeating a door hinge is easier and can be done in a few seconds
with the help of a torch.
• The principle of balanced protection must be kept in mind while making door choices
because if the wall is very strong but the door is very weak the balanced protection shall
not be achieved. Therefore, door window and other opening of a building should be
protected so that those does not present an easy entry route for an aggressor.
• Panic bars to open emergency doors are at times associated with a 30-45-second
delay mechanism to assess the purpose of opening those doors from the control
room. At times people keep those doors open with some improvised means to go
out for smoking or going to another floor below or above the floor it is fixed. In
this scenario using this weakness other crimes like theft may occur. Therefore,
control should get the necessary alarm when an emergency door gets open
without an event of emergency. However, fire code should strictly be followed for
all emergency or fire doors and keep those in fail-safe mode.

• A door is usually attacked by hand tools and an attacker tries to detach bolt from
its housing to open the door. In such case, steel sheets may be used to strengthen
the door frame pose more delay and make it difficult for attackers to enter in a
short time.
•
• WINDOWS AND OTHER OPENINGS

• Windows are fixed for many purposes. Primarily for light, air, and visibility.
Most windows have three parts, frame glass and a locking mechanism. In
modern buildings, walls are made of glazing materials that serve both the
purpose of walls and windows and are fixed permanently. Where needed
the frame of the window should be selected based on the balanced
principle concept and it should not provide a weak link to enter the building
using force or stealth.
• In Bangladesh Thai aluminum frames are used along with a grill fixed inside
the window. These Thai aluminum windows are generally fixed with 4 to 6
mm glass and poor locking arrangements which can easily be opened from
outside. The grills also can be compromised in a short time.
• However, the strength of the glazing materials or glass and locking
arrangement frame strength are the key considerations of windows.
While burglary forced entry or bomb blast effects are the issues that
need to be considered to overcome window barriers should be kept
into consideration. For the building having glass walls where high
officials conduct their daily work, bulletproof glasses may be fixed in
particular places.
• Standard glass named sheet glass plate glass or tempered glass is
often not the solution. Specially sheet and plate glasses are highly
fragile and can cause heavy damage from their fragments in case of a
nearby blast. For most of security applications tempered glass,
laminated glass, wired glass, or bullet-resistance glasses are used.
Tempered glasses are made tempered by appropriate temperature
and use of chemicals and made at least four times stronger than
normal annealed glass when broken produces harmless small parts
that do not harm people nearby. Laminated glasses are made by
joining more than one with a transparent adhesive interlayer. This
type of glass is used against blast.
• When the number of laminated glasses is adjoined multiple layers of glass
and polycarbonate are together to meet the desired level of ballistic
protection. The outermost surface or threat side will always remain glass
and the interior surface or safe side will be polycarbonate. In the case of
wired glass, we see the presence of wire mesh inside the glass and this
hardened the glass to resist fire or impact of heavy materials on the glass
surface.
• A perpetrator can take about 20 seconds to penetrate a wired glass. Safety
glass of 6 mm may take max 30 seconds to penetrate and a 14 mm
laminated glass needs about 15 minutes to penetrate by using hand tools.
Security glass may add penetration time but can not stop penetration by a
perpetrator.
• A window can be made more secure using following techniques:

• Using window bars (steel bars) is very common in the context of Bangladesh.
• Window film (to stop fragment effect) and used to:
• Add a degree of protection.
• Reduce injury from projectile shards of glass
• Reduce injury from projectile penetration
• Blast curtains are made of reinforced fabrics to stop fragments produced by a blast
nearby.
• Security shutters manual or electric can add to the protection.
• Besides doors and windows, every facility may have other openings
that usually remain unattended. an adversary may take advantage of
that path to infiltrate into the facility. Those include sewerage lines,
HVAC duct pipes, tunnels, manholes, etc. All those should be covered
by grills sufficiently strong and where possible alarm system should be
used to detect any movement.
• ROOFS AND FLOORS
• In our country, there are instances that bank robberies took place making a
hole in the floor of an upper floor which was a roof for a vault room.
therefore, we cannot rule out floors or roofs as a possible entry point for
determined adversaries. Roofs and floors are usually constructed using
similar materials. Those are mostly reinforced concrete. methods, but they
may vary in thickness, type, and quantity of steel reinforcement.
• However, in some constructions, other types of roofs or floors are also
seen. Examples may be wooden roofs, metal roofs, reinforced concrete
beams with slabs, metal roof decks with insulations, etc. while planning
roofs or ceiling their materials and thickness should be planned basking on
the purpose of the building. More over proper alarm sensors and response
force should be planned where necessary.
• BLOCKING BARRIERS
• Light vehicles may ram through ordinary fences. Fence may be used against
human trespass but for having a formidable vehicle barrier following are
the options we can consider:
a. Fixed bollards
b. Engineered planters
c. Jersey barriers
d. Heavy objects and trees
e. Water obstacles
f. Walls and fences
• Among the listed barriers above some of them have both passive and
active options. A bollard may be fixed or retractable which means it
can be fixed or moving.
• Active barriers are used in the vehicle entry points where we need to
allow a vehicle to enter as well as when no vehicle is entering we can
stop forced entry of unauthorized entry.
• Bollards are both passive and active and placed either to surround an
area or retractable bollards are placed on the vehicle entryway. A
fixed bollard system should be designed so that it does not obstruct
human traffic and matches the perimeter security design.
• Space between two bollards should be 36 inches to 48 inches
considering the width of a motor vehicle. And bollard height is usually
30 inches but can be up to 48 inches maximum above the ground. A
retractable bollard may be operated manually or by hydraulic,
electric, gas gas-assisted mechanism. It can be controlled locally by
the security guards using a remote control or also may be controlled
from the security operation center or control room.
• Decorative bollards may be used as fixed bollards to provide an
aesthetic view of the premise outside the area. Bollards may also
provide an opportunity to mount lighting, sensors, or other
electronics.
Jersey barriers
• It is a modular concrete or plastic barrier employed to separate lanes
of traffic. It is designed to minimize vehicle in case of incidental
contact while still preventing vehicle cross overs and act as a barrier.
Symbolic And Natural Barriers

• As part of crime prevention through environmental design symbolic or

natural barriers also may be placed to have a psychological effect on the
mind of the people using those areas. Symbolic and natural barriers should
also be considered in some situations and can offer highly effective
alternatives or supplements to typical security hardware. Symbolic barriers
might consist of landscaping, curbs, small decorative fences, or changes in
flooring color or texture. They generally do not provide a solid physical
barrier but can send a psychological signal that aids in controlling
movement or may make individuals uncomfortable in straying from
designated paths or areas. Natural barriers are often highly effective while
blending into a space's particular ambiance or environment.