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Assignment 1: Vulnerability Assessment
Assignment 1: Vulnerability Assessment
Your Name
School of Computer and Information Sciences, University of the Cumberlands
ISOL634 Physical Security
Dr. Name of the Instructor
Current Date
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Assignment 1: Vulnerability Assessment
Contents
Natural Surveillance ..................................................................................................................... 3
Natural Surveillance in the Organization .................................................................................... 3
Visibility from within the offices .............................................................................................. 3
Installed light fixtures ............................................................................................................... 4
Surveillance to loading areas .................................................................................................... 4
Visibility from the neighborhood ............................................................................................. 4
Access Control ............................................................................................................................... 5
Access control around the neighborhood .................................................................................... 6
Limiting Access .......................................................................................................................... 6
Pavement security ..................................................................................................................... 6
Access control inside the premise ............................................................................................... 7
Limiting access outside the building ........................................................................................ 7
Limiting access inside the building .......................................................................................... 7
Territorial Reinforcement ............................................................................................................ 7
Territorial reinforcement outside of the organization surrounding .................................... 8
Territorial reinforcement inside the facility ........................................................................... 8
Territorial reinforcement around the facility neighborhood ................................................ 9
Proper marking ......................................................................................................................... 9
Maintenance .................................................................................................................................. 9
Maintenance in the organization ............................................................................................... 10
Maintain buildings properly .................................................................................................. 10
Maintain the surrounding environment ................................................................................ 10
Maintenance in the neighborhood ..................................................................................... 10
Maintenance of the common areas ........................................................................................ 10
References ..................................................................................................................................... 11
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Assignment 1: Vulnerability Assessment
Natural Surveillance
Natural surveillance refers to the state and condition of the work environment that is
under the human senses such as ears and eyes. From this perspective, various areas around our
workplace are observable without the need of mechanical or electronic devices both day and
night. The perceived and real risk of the users witnessing criminal activity usually act as a
deterrent to the offense being committed. As a design strategy that is oriented on building an
environment that focuses on reducing loss of property when criminal activity occurs or prevent
them from occurring. Natural surveillance thus provides a greater sense of protection in any
public space by ensuring that it is under full observation by its occupants and the neighboring
buildings. We based our vulnerability assessment by checking the natural surveillance around the
organization premises and its neighborhood.
Offenders do not wish to be observed in the fundamental premises. The perceived risk to
offender’s is increased by surveillance or placing of legitimates eyes on the street. Also, the
actual danger to the offenders may be increased especially if there are watchmen’s who are
willing to take potential action when threatening circumstances occurs. Therefore, our main
objective of assessing the surveillance is to ensure that the organization is keeping intruders
under tight observations. The things that we assessed include whether the organization was
controlling the movement of people and activities under clear sightlines with no obstructions,
windows and lightings.
Natural Surveillance in the Organization
Visibility from within the offices
We assessed the vulnerability of the workplace by checking various factors such as
whether the building developers had installed rear windows that are facing the rear parking lots
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Assignment 1: Vulnerability Assessment
for increasing visibility. In such parameter, we checked whether the occupants of the rear offices
would easily identify people coming in and leaving the parking lots which would make it easy
for them to detect any unusual activity (Armitage, 2018). We also checked whether the windows
provided clear visibility by checking whether the window covers were covering less than 25% of
the entire window to ensure that the vision is clear and there are no blackspots. We further
checked the display and the shelving to ensure that they were not one of the elements that are
hindering visibility of what is going on in the environment. Here, we used to measure the
displays and the shelving to ensure that they are not higher than 1.5m or lesser in front of the
windows.
Installed light fixtures
We also asked for permission from the security officers to be left behind so that we could
access external vulnerability of the premises at night. We walked around the premises to check if
the exterior of the building along with the grounds were fully illuminated to ensure that the
security men would clearly see everything happening around the premises which would play an
integral role in deterring any criminal intentions.
Surveillance to loading areas
We carried on our assessment the following morning where we proceeded to assess the design of
the loading areas and confirm that everything was clear and there were no corners that would
create hiding grounds for criminals to attack employees and escape with some important
properties.
Visibility from the neighborhood
we assessed included whether the premises were maintaining a clear visibility from
across the street, and passing vehicles to ensure that even the community would help keep an eye
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Assignment 1: Vulnerability Assessment
during the weekends when no one is around (Marques et al., 2018). Also, we assessed whether
the organization was under visual surveillance such as the CCTVs and whether if pay phones
were within clear sight of the employees for emergency purposes.
We also walked around the organization neighborhood to assess whether it would act as the
breeding ground to criminals. Here, we checked if there is any landscaping that criminals could
use as the hiding grounds and also if there were any recreational centers around to determine
whether they were visible from a nearby street. This would determine if criminals will hang
around these recreational spaces spying on the employees and later attack them while they leave
the organization. At night, we walked around the neighborhood to determine if there were
adequate pedestrian scale light to ensure that the security personnel would easily see oncoming
threat while they guard the premise at night.
Access Control
Within this parameter, we focused on the movement of people in and out of the
organization by strategically directing them towards the areas with good natural surveillance and
away from hidden areas that they might use to create crime opportunities. Access control is all
about managing the behavior of individuals to determine and verify the kind of individuals who
should have access to the organization and its surrounding (Chalfin et al., 2021). We assessed
access from inside the organization and its neighborhoods. Here we assessed various areas that
access depends on such as shrubs, fences, doors and other physical elements to ensure
unauthorized person are not allowed in a specific area if they do not have a genuine purpose for
being there. Although accessing control in the streets can be difficult, there are some techniques
we used to assess access the control such as nonphysical barriers that can be used to have an
access control.
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Assignment 1: Vulnerability Assessment
Access control around the neighborhood
Limiting Access
Here, we assessed if the premises were limiting access of the people entering the
organization without necessarily disconnecting the offices they need to access. This element is
important to take into consideration to ensure that the organization would not hinder individuals
such as the employees and the members of the community needing service from our organization
will not be prevented to do by excess limiting controls. We also assessed that the organization
was limiting criminals to access the organization by cutting through the fence or using
backdoors. Here we checked whether the fence reinforcement was strong enough and if it was
surrounded by abundant surveillance cameras to deter any criminal intention.
Pavement security
Here, we checked if the surrounding pavements was surrounded by any architectural
design features including columned gateways and plantings that would properly guide the
visitors to the desired entrances and that they did not lead them into private areas that were only
meant to be assessed by the staff only. here, we ensured that private gates were labelled clearly
with signs indicating that the public were not meant to access them and also the plantings and
column features were not having any blind spots that criminals would take advantage of and
access the unauthorized offices (Bakhshande, 2018). Additionally, we assessed if the pavements
surrounding the organization had been installed in safe locations especially at the center of the
premise to ensure that the security guards would observe them and direct those who appear
stranded.
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Assignment 1: Vulnerability Assessment
Access control inside the premise
Limiting access outside the building
Here, we assessed whether there were installed check-out counters at the front of the
building particularly at the entrance of the building and that there were security personnel
checking the belongings of the individuals accessing the building. They should also check the
belongings of the individual leaving to ensure that no one will leave with an unauthorized
property including employees. We checked whether public paths were clearly marked and set
separately from the private paths to ensure that there was no non-employee who would have
access to them. we also walked around the building to ensure that there were no stairways that
would give offenders direct access to the rooftop or fire escape exits from the ground. We
ensured that everything was properly locked away including ladders and other tools that would
attract the attention of the perpetrators.
Limiting access inside the building
Limiting access to the offices inside the building is equally important. Therefore, we
checked whether the office doors were clearly labelled to guide our customers to their desired
offices and hinder them from entering unauthorized areas such as the safe room and other offices
that are private. We also ensured that the floor area was visible and that the employees working
in the offices would clearly see people leaving and entering other offices to hinder any unclear
intentions. We also assessed if all important documents were safely locked away and that there
was proper lighting and surveillance cameras around the offices for clear visibility.
Territorial Reinforcement
Here, we directed our attention to the design features incorporated in the building and its
locations to instill a sense of pride or ownership of a particular section to ensure that criminals
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Assignment 1: Vulnerability Assessment
will be discouraged from committing offenses. Many people believe that criminals have a
tendency of targeting the areas that will not pose risks when they are accessing what they want to
take or their target victims and that they prefer committing offenses in areas that are hidden from
the public areas. Therefore, it was important to conduct this assessment to determine if our
organization was prone to such aspects.
Territorial reinforcement outside of the organization surrounding
At first, we checked if the building had any signposts indicating that the building was
under 24-hour surveillance as this is the first spot criminals look for when planning for crimes. In
most cases, many criminals tend to stay away from such premises as it indicates that there is high
possibility of getting caught (Armitage, 2018). We also assessed if the organization have marked
property boundaries where possible with hedges, gates or low fences that would allow the
security personnel who is accessing these areas and identify if it is the right individuals. We
checked if the parking lots had clear markings of the lots that were private and those that are
public to distinguish the individuals parking in these spaces. We also checked if the parking lots
were positioned strategically and were not obscured by any structure that would allow criminal
activity to take place.
Territorial reinforcement inside the facility
Inside the facility, we checked if the occupants of a particular office have been clearly labelled
and strategically placed starting from the Chief Executive Officer to customer care desks. This
would instill a sense of belonging of the individuals occupying a particular office and therefore
the members of the public will have knowledge of the offices they only desire to access.
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Assignment 1: Vulnerability Assessment
Territorial reinforcement around the facility neighborhood
It is important to determine the territorial reinforcements around the organization’s neighborhood
to ensure that organization property was well labelled and that the neighbors would clearly see
the ongoing activities in our organization.
Proper marking
From this perspective, we walked around the organization’s neighborhood to determine if
territorial markings were well established and that the facility was clearly marked with visible
markings that were possible to see even at night. Here, we checked that the organization had
clearly accentuated their entrances with subdivisions that were well labeled and had a landscape
design that was allowing interaction with the neighbors.
Maintenance
Maintenance is very close to the sense of neighborhoods ‘pride of place’ as well the
territorial reinforcements. This involves adopting a routine to maintain the surrounding buildings
and areas that will play an integral role in fostering a positive image that will help in
discouraging crime and reducing the fear of crime from happening. Proper maintenance of the
organization and its architecture can play an integral role in reducing crime by ensuring that
there are no weak points that criminals can take advantage of to rob or attack the employees. If a
certain area around the organization is dilapidated, there are high chances of attracting unwanted
activities. Depending on the image and maintenance of a zone, we were able to determine if they
have a major effect on whether it will be next target. Here, we assessed the organization premises
from its design management and maintenance needs as the materials selected and finishes will
affect the types of maintenance regimes that can be maintained over time
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Assignment 1: Vulnerability Assessment
Maintenance in the organization
Maintain buildings properly
Constant maintenance of the organization buildings is important. We assessed the vulnerability
of our organization’s buildings by determining if they are regularly repaired to prevent criminals
from creating short cuts to the property inside the premise.
Maintain the surrounding environment
Here we assessed whether the parking lots were maintained to the right conditions such that there
are no trash or potholes. We checked if the surrounding plantings were in good condition to
avoid bushy vegetation that the criminals would use as hide-out zones.
Maintenance in the neighborhood
Maintenance of the common areas
Here we assessed that the common areas including cloakrooms, recreational areas,
entrances and greenways were properly maintained to deter criminal activities. We also checked
if the facility had implemented restrictions of certain acts such as trespassing and smoking within
the facility to ensure that only the right individuals were using these facilities and not criminals
waiting for an opportunity to commit crime.
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Assignment 1: Vulnerability Assessment
References
Armitage, R. (2018). Burglars’ take on crime prevention through environmental design
(CPTED): reconsidering the relevance from an offender perspective. Security Journal, 31(1),
285-304.
Bakhshande, N. A. (2018). New urbanism and management of urban defenseless spaces to
control criminal behavior.
Chalfin, A., Hansen, B., Lerner, J., & Parker, L. (2021). Reducing crime through environmental
design: Evidence from a randomized experiment of street lighting in New York City. Journal of
Quantitative Criminology, 1-31.
Marques, S. C., Ferreira, F. A., Meidutė-Kavaliauskienė, I., & Banaitis, A. (2018). Classifying
urban residential areas based on their exposure to crime: A constructivist approach. Sustainable
cities and society, 39, 418-429.