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608 Chapter 11 • Operational and Organizational Security: Incident Response

When creating measures to protect systems, it is important to note that threats
are not limited to people outside the company. One of the greatest challenges to
physical security is protecting systems from people within an organization.
Corporate theft is a major problem for businesses, because employees have easy
access to equipment, data, and other assets. Because an employee’s job may require
working with computers and other devices, there is also the possibility that equip-
ment may be damaged accidentally or intentionally. Physical security must not only
protect equipment and data from outside parties, but also those within a company.
A good way to protect servers and critical systems is to place them in a central-
ized location. Rather than keeping servers in closets throughout a building, it is
common for organizations to keep servers, network connectivity devices, and crit-
ical systems in a single room. Equipment that cannot be stored in a centralized
location should still be kept in secure locations. Servers, secondary routers, switches,
and other equipment should be stored in cabinets, closets, or rooms that are locked,
have limited access, are air-conditioned, and have other protective measures in place
to safeguard equipment.

Reviewing Physical Security
Even if the physical security of a location is suitable when a server was
Head of the Class… will move to different offices, renovations will be made to facilities, and
installed, it may not be at a later date. In an office environment, people

equipment will be moved. Even though a server was initially placed in a
secure location, the server could be moved or the location could become
insecure as changes are made.
Unfortunately, many of the decision makers in a company may be
clueless as to the importance of physical security for network equipment,
and make changes without considering implications. In a large organiza-
tion where much of the network administration is done remotely, IT staff
may be unaware that such changes have even occurred. For example, in
one organization, I saw numerous problems with physical security. During
construction to a reception area, the server was moved from a closet
behind the reception desk area to the center of an unlocked room.
Another server closet became a catchall area, and would be unlocked to
allow people to put equipment, office supplies, and their coats and boots
in the winter. When renovations occurred at another location, the server
was moved to a closet in a washroom area. This would have been bad
enough, except that it was later designated a public washroom, and
employees who accessed the closet would occasionally forget to lock it.
Perhaps even worse, when an architecture firm was hired to evaluate the
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