Nowadays the amount of accidents that represent potential danger to health and life of the individual is constantly enlarging. The risks emerge in a series of different situations at working place, in the street or even at home. Risks are therefore regarded by the employers and employees, householders and the rest of individuals. One of the primarily methods of risk prevention is usage of weapons, personal protection equipment and force. This issue is closely connected with personal physical security that plays extremely important role in life of modern people.
Physical security is a series of measures that aim to protect different resources, equipment, as well prevent damage of personal property of the individual. This also includes such kinds of danger, as espionage or terrorism. Therefore, it can be said that physical security covers a wide range of different areas of social life and therefore it includes a lot of levels of specific security systems, such as locks, security guards, passwords, CCTV supervision and other protective barriers.
Personal security technology represents a large number of different types of weapons. Only with these products it is possible for individual to protect oneself from the criminal attack. According to statistical researches held within the area of criminal law, the numbers of criminal attacks that represent potential danger for people and their families have seriously increased. The meaning of security weapons therefore became more important for everyday life. It gives the ability to produce impact on what is happening with people that have been attacked by the criminal.
There are different types of products that can be used for physical security. Such things as hidden cameras, personal protection knives, non-lethal weapons or multiple stun gun devices can be used to protect one’s personal life and mining. This helps people to manage issues that are connected with physical personal protection.
Physical security systems have gained a new level of importance after the terroristic attacks on 11th of September, 2001 (Smith, Brooks, 2012). The new protection system has covered all areas of potential danger. For example, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) pays serious attention to the implementation of multiple technology-based solutions to strengthen its facilities that protect citizens against terrorist attacks. The physical security programs are used in the same way to protect the organizations and its members. The information protection is one of the key elements that have a close connection with physical security technology.
There are different types of personal protection equipment that differ depending on the criteria that are used to classify them. When talking about purpose, it is important to underline record containers that include multiple data files and safes. Moreover, commutation devices are also important as they give the ability to pass information with the help of two-way radios or scrambler telephones. Specific role has to be given to the identification protection tools that are getting more important because of the growing number outside invasions with the help of fake personal data that gives criminals access to the protected information.
This problem can be solved with the usage of access-control system that needs a specific code to be used. Such systems are used in the majority of contemporary organizations that aim to protect their workers, facilities and personal mining (Ricks, Ricks, Dingle, 2014).
One of the main goals that have real importance for every security program used within the organization is the formation of effective system of recruitment and usage of trustworthy human resources. The term that is used for the elaborated measures of cadre selection is “personnel security”. It has to be able to predict the potential trustworthiness of the personnel because the employee’s unreliability leads to more serious harm than the outside system attacks. Here, one of the best ways to create a reliable prediction is to address to the past behavior of the individual.
Personal protection equipment is a term that is usually used to define the multiple types of protective clothing, helmets and other tools that protect the body of the individual from the potential injuries. Personal protection equipment is especially important on the working place because of the positive impact it has to the working process results and the wellbeing of the organizations’ personnel.
Personal protection equipment is used to prevent the possible harm for the employee in case the engineering or administrative control is ineffective or unable to reduce these risks to the satisfactory level.
The disadvantage of using this equipment lies it its inability to diminish the risks on the emergence stage and therefore it can male employee defenseless to the risks in case the equipment fails. The nature of personal protection equipment is imperfect and it can cause a terminated effect. It also cannot be useful in all possible situations and therefore can appear to be useless in unpredicted situation.
Moreover, the personal protection equipment that is used within the organizations to protect the personnel can impact the working process as it creates a certain barrier between the worker and the working environment. This can create the additional tension for the wearer and the pressure during the working process increases. The followed discomfort and inability to effectively implement multiple working skills can discourage employees from the proper usage of this type of physical security protection equipment and therefore it places them at risk of potential injuries or the negative impact towards the overall wellbeing and health stance.
In extreme circumstances, the inappropriate usage of personal protection equipment can lead to deaths of the employee. Therefore, a real importance represents the ergonomic design of the protection tools that produce a minimum impact on the working conditions and therefore give the ability to the personnel to properly implement the equipment and reduce the risks of physical injuries.
The use of force is usually a messier used by the representatives of law enforcement in the order to get control over the ungovernable situation. Use of force can also be used by the security officers, although in the majority of situations they are not required even to arrest the uncontrollable individual. The use of force can be regulated through the implementation of the use of force continuum that defines the possible force amount that can be implemented in the particular situation. The most general standardization method proposes five different steps that determine the different level of force usage, from the lowest to the highest one.
Such classification represents only one side of the issue as it does not give the definition of the amount of opponents’ resistance that reflect the reply in the increase of the force usage. Such gradation is known to the officers as they have to be able to define the optimal amount of implemented force that is targeted to diminish the potential risk produced by criminal.
The lowest define level of force usage is presence as here only the presence effect of authoritative individual within the issue. The second level is verbalization. It is necessary to underline that here the direct commands can produce the desired effect on the individual. The empty had control is the third level of use of force that requires the use of hands to relieve the weapons to stop, forge and therefore control the individual.
The two last levels require more active behavior and are more powerful because of implementation of the different elements of protection equipment, such as non-lethal weapons on the level of intermediate weapons. It also includes the usage of technology as the new type of weapon that can be useful in getting control in the unexpected situation, or the implementation of impact weapons.
The last level defines the most serious amount of use of force that is permitted in the majority of situations. It is deadly force and it is connected with the permission to use the different types of weapon that can cause serious injuries or even deaths of the individual that. This stage is potentially dangerous for the attacked subject and therefore it is advised to use protection equipment to improve personal physical security.
Personal security relies on the different types of subjects, such as weapons, personal protection equipment and the use of force. But together with that is important to see the difference between the theory and practice of physical security and to be able to effectively implement the theoretical background into everyday practice.
Policies that are set in the area of security development have to be connected with the practices that are implemented within the country and all in general has to lead to the development of the effective protection system. This system has to be able to protect technology systems and databases. The access to the technology networks has to be limited and protected from the unsanctioned invasion.
The division of security theory and practice of physical security has to be destroyed and here special role is given to the Information security professionals. The importance of this issue is really serious and extremely complex as it is connected with the professional career and the environment of the individual. On an organization level, the Information security professionals have to be able to cope with the security measures that include, but are not limited to the challenges within the IT environment and physical area.
More attention has to be paid to such issues as cyber terrorism, information war and infrastructure protection methods. Cyber terrorism is a new type of attack that is constantly developing and it has to be understood in order to be able to give an adequate answer to the possible invasion as it represents serious danger for the social and government security.
The Computer Network Auditing has to face the increase of specific expertise within the area, as well as the IT technologies have to deeply research as the new systems that are used by the organizations are always followed by the new potential risks to its security. The theoretical knowledge of these new systems will therefore gain the development in practical sphere that is essential for the productivity of the working process. The physical security of the employee is also connected with this process and therefore it requires more attention of the personnel.
The development of new approaches to the possible risks and potential danger for the individual and the increased researches of the usage of force, weapon and personal protection equipment will in complex give the serious push to the development of overall security of the individuals the and organizations security systems.
References
Ricks, T. A., Ricks, B. E., Dingle, J. (2014). Physical Security and Safety: A Field Guide for the Practitioner. NW: Taylor & Francis Group.
Smith, C., Brooks, D. J. (2012). Security Science: The Theory and Practice of Security. NY: Elsevier Science & Technology.
