Is your office really secure?
How mobile is changing the security game
As a business owner, you just want to keep those who don’t belong out and give access to those who do. It only takes one person who doesn’t belong to devastate your business. Unfortunately, security is often an afterthought for small businesses after losing valuable assets during a break-in or employee theft.
According to the 2016 FBI Crime in the U.S. Report, almost half a million businesses lost an average of $2,562 due to burglary. As crime dropped across the U.S., burglaries at businesses rose 2.6% from the previous year.
Almost half a million businesses are burglarized each year Average loss: $2,562
How do you prevent being burglarized next?
Access control technology’s major advancements in cloud and mobile connectivity led to easier installations and lower costs for everyone. Yet, access control is still primarily adopted in large corporations. Small to medium sized businesses get left to fend for themselves.
Many small to medium sized businesses are still using the old fashion key and lock, and feeling the obvious pain points. No audit trails, rekeying when employees leave, and vulnerable to duplication and hacking.
Fun fact: “Do Not Duplicate” warning on keys has no legal weight in the U.S.
Enter the keycard, replacement for a key
Keycard readers have been the primary access control for commercial security, from enterprise to transportation. There are different types of keycards - magnetic, RFID proximity, smart cards, etc. Keycards were a huge step in the right direction from keys - able to turn on/off individual cards without interruption and tracking when a card was used - but didn’t solve every problem.
Google “How to copy RFID keycards” and hundreds of step-by-step tutorials will flood your search. You can copy a keycard on a budget of $20 and you don’t even need possession of the card.
Keycards lack the technology to authenticate the person. If you have the card, you have access. The cloud has enabled technology and security around access to take a far better road.
Small businesses don’t have the time or money for investment in a major installation of traditional access control like RFID readers. Each card can cost $10 alone.
Enter mobile access, replacement of all keys
There is a shift in the access control market to mobile and cloud credentials. According to SecureID News, Gartner says by 2020, 20% of organizations who currently use keycards will replace them with a cloud based access control system with mobile credentials. That is 1/5th of businesses making the switch in a little over a year!
By 2020, 20% of businesses will replace keycards with mobile keys
Cloud based access control has the advantage of multiple security layers that already exist on our smartphones.
Possession of the smartphone (matches key/keycard)
Not able to duplicate
Entering a pin or password
Fingerprint scanner
Face scanner
There are many advantages for using smartphones over keys or keycards. The first being everyone already has a phone so no additional cost to the business.
Security is stronger. Employees are less likely to let someone borrow their smartphone, and it is fairly impossible to copy the key without permission. Smartphones are constantly improving authentication, first with a pin and now biometrics. Today, 67% of smartphones have a fingerprint scanner, a huge jump from 14% in 2014 (Statista 2018). Many phones are also introducing facial recognition technology as a heightened layer of security.
The technology for cloud based access control has advanced dramatically in the past few years which now gives the opportunity for small businesses to have the highest security and easiest installation at a fraction of the cost.
Smart access control is not just for the Google’s and Microsoft’s of the world. Everyone can benefit from this technology.