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by Freedom Consulting Posted on February 15, 2021
To many, homeownership is the pinnacle of the American dream. Whether a new homeowner or someone that has resided in their home for over twenty years, physical security should be an ingrained part of your home security plan. While most mortgage companies require insurance to replace your losses after an event, what about the things that you cannot replace, like heirlooms, loss of life, and peace of mind? By implementing your home security plan, you are taking the first steps to protect your most important assets.
Physical security is the part of security concerned with physical measures that have been designed to protect people, equipment, materials, and documents from damage, loss, or unauthorized access. One of the first steps when addressing a home security plan is to identify what are the assets. An asset is anything of value to an individual or organization. It can be tangible and/or intangible properties such as people (family), physical objects (jewelry or art), or information (bank account information, hard drive with passwords on it). Simply put, assets are what someone is trying to protect.
We always ask, “If your house was on fire and you had five minutes, what would be the things in the house you would want to protect?” Family members, pets, irreplaceable heirlooms, like photo albums or hardrives. Or another question to help identify what an asset is, “What keeps you up at night regarding the valuables in your home?” Once an individual has identified their assets, they need to determine what threats, vulnerabilities, and risks are present. A threat is an indication or event that can result in a loss, damage, or unauthorized access to an asset. Think home invasions, natural disasters, ransomware, etc. A risk is the likelihood of a loss from a threat, security incident, or event. Think of the likelihood of the event occurring. Vulnerabilities are a weakness or organizational practice that may allow a threat to be realized or increases the magnitude of a loss event. This would be something like an open window or unlocked door.
Now that the risks, threats, and vulnerabilities are identified, it is important to conduct due diligence to determine what the threats are. For home physical security, this includes looking at the neighborhood and surrounding area to determine crime rates and current crime trends. This can be done by using applications such as Neighborhood Scout (https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/), LexisNexis Community Crime Map (https://communitycrimemap.com/), or Area Vibes (https://www.areavibes.com/) to name a few. You can also receive information about your neighborhood by contacting your local law enforcement department.
Once the assets, risks, threats, and vulnerabilities have been identified, now the homeowner can begin the home physical security plan. A home physical security plan is not complicated it merely takes time and effort. In 2020 according to www.statista.com, there were 128.45 million homes throughout the United States. Alarms.org reports that there is a burglary every 13 seconds resulting in property crime losses estimated at $14.3 billion. Some neighborhoods are safer than others therefore each homeowner should customize their home security assessment based on the environment of their home.
Both cyber and physical security protect assets by taking a layered security approach. In physical security, this is done by what ASIS refers to as the 4 D’s. The 4 D’s are deter, detect, delay, and defend. Below are the definitions and examples for each of the 4 D’s.
Security in layers is beneficial when creating a home security plan. It is recommended to look at the threats from the outside in and inside out. When addressing delaying a criminal act it is important to determine the response time of the local first responders. This can be done by calling the local law enforcement office and asking what the worst-case response time would be for an officer to arrive at the residence. Ideally, the goal is to deter a criminal act at the property. If deterrence did not prevent the criminal act, then the next step is to detect the criminal and then delay the criminal long enough for the local authorities to arrive using the worst-case timing scenario.
Below are some easy steps you can take to help secure your residence:
Some ways to help secure the inside of your house include:
These are just some of the ways to create a home security plan. Remember when planning, to also have an evacuation plan. Whether it is a fire, CO2, or a home invasion, it is a good idea to know what to do when a crisis occurs. For more information listen and follow us at www.coffeesquadpodcast.com or watch our web-series at www.fc-llc.org.
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