COVID-19 security tips for education

We recommend the following steps:

1. Ensure that your open/close and holiday schedules reflect your new operating hours or closed status of your campus for both systems.
2. Update your contact list for your intrusion systems to reflect any new organizational changes and responsibilities.
3. Revisit your access control lock/unlock schedules along with updating access rights to sensitive areas on site such as labs, student housing or administrative buildings to reflect your new operating protocols.
4. Review your access privileges to ensure the right people have access to the right areas, at the right times.
5. If your access control solution has a timed-out function where access is automatically revoked after a specific time of inactivity, modify or remove that restriction to accommodate individuals’ new working schedules.
6. If your intrusion or access control systems have a mobile app, make sure to enable that function in order to receive critical alerts and notifications while you are working remotely.
7. Augment your visitor management system with an expanded questionnaire to include COVID-19 specific questions related to travel and potential exposure.
8. Ensure your hard drive or cloud storage for your video system has sufficient space to handle the potential increase in recording.
9. Review your current camera placements to ensure adequate coverage for both inside and outside areas given buildings may be closed and unoccupied. Also, ensure that all existing cameras are online and recording.
10. Check with your ISP to confirm adequate bandwidth to accommodate increased streaming requirements.
11. Revisit your integration points with existing intrusion or access control points to help capture video of intrusion alarm or access control attempted breaches.