The Importance of Physical Security

PHYSICAL SECURITY

The importance of physical security cannot be understated because it ranges from issues of outright theft of a system or key storage component to intervention with the boot drive during startup. Physical security is the basis of computer security. The two main topics of physical security are protection against natural risks and malicious attacks.

Natural risks are the most common threats to computer physical security. Power interruption may be hard to recover from. Sometimes it may result in permanent system damage, since electronic components are not designed to absorb sudden power fluctuations. UPS (uninterrupted power supply), surge protectors, alternative power generators are possible security measures although many times their effectiveness goes untested.

Use of chemical fire suppressants such as halon or smoke detectors and sprinklers are possible security measures. Chemical fire suppressants like halon can be tricky to use because we want to be able t...