Data is critical to your business, so physical security for servers is more important than ever

London, May 2020 – Businesses,
large and small, create data which needs protecting, whether in an onsite
server room or co-located at a data centre. When you imagine a
corporate data breach, you’re probably picturing black-hat hackers pursued by
cybercrime investigators. The reality is often more mundane. Only around a half
of breaches involve hacking, according to one recent report*. Gaps in the
physical security your data and servers are equally important targets.

Perhaps
your company director leaves her laptop on the train. Or an unauthorized visitor
spots open server racks and quickly downloads records onto his smartphone. Or
maybe your server room access control is left entirely to lock-and-key
technology which you cannot easily track.

Securing
sensitive data needs the involvement of every member in an organization, from
top to bottom. But physically protecting servers and data stores is the heart
of the security and IT manager’s role.

How much could a data breach
cost you?

In the
absence of appropriate physical server security, the mundane can be dangerous —
and expensive. Recent research for IBM by the Ponemon Institute estimates the
average total cost of a data breach at $3.86 million (€3.57 million)**.
According to the same benchmark report, this average is rising, by 6.4% in the
last year alone. Some of the highest breach costs are borne by companies in
Europe, including Germany, France, Italy and the UK.

Such costs
can be direct: in business disruption, lost mailing lists or disabled logistics
software. They can be indirect: an erosion of customer trust and damaged “brand
equity”. Hard-earned goodwill and positive reputations are quickly reversed.

Costs
also come from fines levied by government and supranational regulators. As Big
Data gets bigger, so does the regulatory landscape for data handling.

The
most relevant framework for those operating in the EMEA region is the European
Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This wide-ranging data
privacy rulebook has been enforced since May 2018. GDPR requires you to protect
storage of all personal information, including customer and employee data. Your
safeguards must include both electronic and physical barriers to unauthorised
access. Server protection is critical.

3 levels of physical security
for your servers

Do you
know who last accessed your servers — and when? If the answer to either
question is “no”, you are taking unnecessary risks with data security. Yet
ensuring you stay on the regulators’ right side, and avoid a costly breach,
could be straightforward: better access control.

To
ensure maximum security of your servers, in its recent white paper ASSA ABLOY
recommends three levels of security working together within an integrated
access system. At the top level, perimeter security ensures only authorised
personnel enter a data storage building. Here, door and gate electronic locks
with credential readers can work alongside the likes of CCTV and monitored
fencing. It’s your first line of physical breach defence.

Level 2
— server room access — can be monitored and controlled with a range of access
control door devices with inbuilt credential readers, including Aperio battery-powered
escutcheons or complete security locks. Either device integrates seamlessly
with access and security management systems from over 100 different
manufacturers. At room level, physical security must also include water- and
dustproofing, electromagnetic security and protection against other physical
threats to servers and data***.

The
third, final level of physical data security is your server rack or cabinet.
Server rooms have a steady flow of authorised traffic: cleaners, maintenance
staff, repair technicians and others. Employee screening cannot be perfect —
and accidents happen. Rack or cabinet locking with RFID readers is the last
line of defence against a malicious or accidental physical data breach.

Responsive, real-time rack
protection

ASSA
ABLOY’s Aperio KS100 Server Cabinet Lock adds real-time access control and
monitoring to server racks and cabinets. The lock works with an existing or new
access control system; compatible credentials employ all standard RFID
protocols including iCLASS^®, MIFARE^® and DESFire. Under
the EU’s GDPR, you must inform anyone affected by a breach “without undue
delay”. With the Aperio KS100, you would know right away if unauthorised access
had even been attempted.

Once
installed, KS100 locks integrate with your access control system and
communicate wirelessly via an Aperio Communications Hub, even if your racks are
co-located in a distant data centre. Once online integration with your security
admin system is complete, lock access decisions are communicated from and
recorded by your software wirelessly.

“When Aperio replaces mechanical locking at all three levels
of server access control, lost keys no longer compromise data security. Lost
credentials are simply deauthorised and a valid replacement reissued. The current
status of any lock, at any level, is revealed with the click of a mouse.
Generating detailed audit trails is straightforward, making the KS100 and other
Aperio wireless locks invaluable for incident investigation”, explains Johan
Olsén, Aperio Product Manager at ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions
EMEA.

The
right electronic locking keeps your customer reputation intact, your data off
the Dark Web, and you on the right side of the multiple data protection
regulations, including GDPR.

Could you protect your valuable
data better with improved access control? Download ASSA ABLOY’s free 12-page
briefing paper on data centre security at https://campaigns.assaabloyopeningsolutions.eu/aperio-data-centers