Have you ever walked into a supermarket or maybe Wal–Mart, looked at the glass domes coming out of the ceiling that hold the security cameras and wonder if anyone was watching you? Or, better yet, made a face or gesture or something else to entertain the people who are watching the monitors?

While we sometimes make light of closed–circuit TV and other security measures, they are very important to local businesses, as I found out when I talked with several security consultants and asked them about the key security issues facing central Pennsylvania businesses.

They say their clients are addressing issues of access control to their facilities, loss prevention, workplace violence, and competitive intelligence.

“The major risk to small businesses is internal theft,” according to Mick Moritz, president of Moritz Associates, Inc., Harrisburg, who lectures on business security internationally for the American Society of Industrial Security. Moritz advises client organizations to pay close attention to those whom they hire to work in their business and to establish reasonable internal controls that fit with the company culture.

“Everybody wants rules,” he says. “People want to know what they’re supposed to do.” Moritz says that while considerable media attention is paid to unwarranted intrusions into people’s privacy, the problem typically is “the poor judgment of those doing the intruding. Bad law is made by poor judgment. Anything that is put in place has to be reasonable. We should be doing things to our employees that we wouldn’t have any problem having done to us.” Clearly Moritz is on to something novel—following the Golden Rule in business!

Because most companies don’t want just anyone wandering in, access control is another major issue according to Byron J. Ensor, president of Electronic Systems Integration, Inc., Shiremanstown. Ensor sees himself as a “systems integrator,” helping companies integrate their access control and fire alarm systems, making use of multiple technologies.

Many companies use a “smart card” to control access to building doors. A problem with this system, Ensor says, is that the card must be physically swiped through an electronic reader, making it difficult to interface with other systems that have been installed. Other problems are that the reader has no way of knowing if the card’s owner has given it to someone else (how “smart” can it be if it doesn’t know that?) and that the reader can move slowly when there are many people trying to move through an access point at the same time.

An alternative to the “smart card” is the proximity reader, in which the entry card has an antenna coil in it. When it is held close to the reader, the reader reads the frequency on the card and grants access. This system has been approved under the Americans with Disabilities Act because it doesn’t require a person to physically move the card through the reader. Here too, however, the reader will not know if the card has been passed on to someone else.

One way to overcome the problem of employees giving their key cards to other people is to use a biometric screen. Ensor says that biometric measures now available include reading the geometry of a person’s hand, scanning a person’s iris, reading the pattern on the retina of a person’s eye, reading a fingerprint, face recognition, and voice recognition. These systems are coming down in cost as more of them are put into place, he says.

Ensor reports that a major problem continues to be that systems are not integrated. A company’s time/attendance system typically will not have any interface with its security system. And the staff in each area may not want anything to do with each other. Without such integration, however, a company is not taking full advantage of the resources at its command.

Ensor says it is hard to predict trends in business security because technology is changing so rapidly.

Allen Conrad, president of A.C. Security Services, Lemoyne, says video badges are becoming a key element in his business. In this security system, a picture of an individual is stored in a computer and printed on a PVC badge along with other encoded data.

Another service Conrad has been selling is telemetry backup using a special cellular channel to send data as a backup to a regular telephone line. Because it relies on cellular technology, this application is not appropriate for high-risk jobs.

Conrad also sees systems integration as a major goal for the future. One application he is seeing is using one guard in a central location to monitor an entire facility through integrated close circuit television cameras. And Conrad is seeing a shift from business owners choosing security systems based strictly on price to decisions being made on quality and customer service.

While some national attention has been paid to the issue of workplace violence, regional consultants say it is not a widespread concern.

“Government agencies are interested in workplace violence,” Ensor says, “as are any companies that have had an actual incident. Others generally are not too concerned.”

Moritz says the number of incidents of workplace violence is not that high but it does create fear in people. He believes it has peaked as a concern, however, perhaps to be replaced by competitive intelligence—seeking to learn open and accessible information about another company, usually a competitor.

“Major corporations have staff who specialize in gathering open information about their competition,” he says. “It’s important to educate employees about what information they should or should not give out. People often are willing to disclose information without knowing to whom they are giving it. You shouldn’t give any answers to someone you don’t know.”

Moritz pointed out that he was giving me information without knowing who I was and whether I actually was doing an article for MODE, as I had told him. But, he said, he was watching closely what information he revealed and was sure not to say anything that he wouldn’t want anyone to know.

With all security issues, Moritz says, companies tend to underestimate their work force too much. “On balance, the work force is pretty dedicated and intelligent,” he says. “Companies need to be open with their employees. The best we can do is to have as much information flowing both ways as possible.”