Blog
MANAGING SECURITY INCIDENTS
Did you know that Door Cloud offers a full-featured security management platform called “Incidents”? But before we go any further, let us define what we mean by security management …
WHAT IS SECURITY MANAGEMENT?
Security management is the system for gathering security-related information and providing appropriate responses. It is implemented as a live platform for handling security events, called Incidents. This may sound a bit dramatic, and sometimes can represent the most serious security or safety alert, such as an active shooter or chemical leak. However, in most cases, an incident is a common daily occurrence that requires the attention of security personnel, or at least should be recorded just in case. For example, someone may report a minor act of vandalism or a suspicious vehicle in the parking lot. The officers in charge of monitoring the system would then decide the appropriate course of action. That may range from alerting the police or emergency services to sending a security guard to take a closer look. Sometimes the appropriate action could be to do nothing.
FAST RESPONSE IS THE KEY
In any case, the most important thing is to relay the information as quickly as possible. Thanks to the cloud and mobile apps, the time required from the moment someone reports an incident to the moment the right person is notified, is zero – everything happens instantly. Notification is pushed directly from users to responders, so all that’s needed are live batteries, mobile network in range and a bit of attention. There is no faster way currently known to mankind.
But what if the right person is currently unavailable? First, more than one person can be notified at once. In fact, incidents are normally sent to groups of responders. As soon as anyone responds, the rest of the team stops being alerted. And second, the role of the first responder may just be to forward the incident to the “right” person or team. There is no limit on incident forwarding. The only limit is time.
DEALING WITH DELAYS
But what if the incident somehow gets stuck and no one responds? Door Cloud provides the system of automatic escalation after a certain period of time. If the preset time passes without a response, the incident is automatically escalated to another higher-level team. There are three levels in total, with the final level managed by Door Cloud administrators. So there is little chance of anything going unnoticed.
But is that what we really want? If every single event reported by anyone (all Door Cloud users can submit incidents) and of any importance gets full attention, is it going to overwhelm the system? To avoid just that, all incidents are assigned a priority, which can be NORMAL, HIGH or TOP, each with its own minimum response time.
INCIDENTS VS. ALARMS
Some may wonder if there is a connection between incidents and alarms since there are some obvious similarities. Both are some kind of security event, both require human attention, and both are time critical. However, there is one key difference: alarms are generated automatically and originally triggered by hardware. Incidents, on the other hand, are submitted manually via the mobile app.
Moreover, alarms are narrowly defined and can be handled automatically. Incidents, on the other hand, are completely open-ended and always require human involvement. Furthermore, an incident can be raised from an alarm – Door Cloud offers this as an option when handling alarms. The reverse would make little sense. All this calls for two separate platforms.
KEEPING THE TRACK
Once the incident is closed, it disappears from the active list and is available in the history logs. So, everything is recorded in searchable logs for later analysis and reference. That neatly closes the circle to well-managed security. And for those seeking compliancy with security management standards such as ISO 27001, Door Cloud Incidents will also help tick some important checkboxes.
