For those of you with alarm storefronts

In years past it was common for banks to NOT have any alarm system in the office portion of their building, but just on the vault. And the office area of a bank would be similar to a security company office. Desks, filing cabinets, office equipment, etc.

And it was not common for someone to break into a bank office and take anything from there.

What they were looking for was something they could sell at a pawn shop or whatever.

However something like a beer distribution warehouse or jewelry store would have tip top security. Much more likely someone would break in there!

With that said, what is your liability should someone break in and take someone's code, then clean that customer out? Could you be sued and be held responsible? Or could you put some language in your contracts which would protect you from being held liable?

Then could you remove the codes from the files and place them all in a VERY HEAVY safe which is chained and bolted to the ground?

Or perhaps get very heavy filing cabinets which would take a long time to break into and would be too heavy to lift and remove from the building?

Of most concern would be fire. What if there was a fire and all these files were destroyed? Perhaps fireproof filing cabinets as well or everything important copied and a backup stored offsite - computer scan and disk in bank safe deposit box?

Of course there's the liability issues, but we're also in a small town. I would think we'd be out of business too fast to get a lawsuit filed anyway.

Perhaps removing code lists would be a good start. We have no real use for them and could just shred them all.

From what I've seen they all have the same style of lock. In a town full of car theives, the cabinet might just be unlocked before the entry delay has run out, especially if they're as "secure" as a panel lock.

For the customer files, I would think fire would only be a minor problem. I'm not sure what other files we have in the office relating to the company, those might be more of a concern though.

You could keep the customers files (in electronic format) at a PC in a secure location (where it is now presumably) and VPN into that machine as needed during the day.

You could also setup the PC you use for downloading as a remote workstation using Logmein.com's free or paid service OR use a VNC remote program.

Chris,

Think of disaster recovery and not just burglary. Fire, flood, earthquake, disgruntled employee, power surges, hard drive crashes, etc etc can cripple a company for days, weeks, and even to the point of no return. Financial info, receivables, payroll info., personnel records and the list goes on and on are all a must in order to recover to normal operations as quickly as possible. Don't forget that list of phone numbers. That is something that is kept on computer and not usually something that is backed up. Insurance policies and other corporate documents don't necessarily need to be kept at your office for instance. You will know what is critical to your operation. Most central station information should be readily available to you through your computer. That is if you are connected and/or online with your central station. No need to keep any of that info on site in hard copy. If your office burns down, get on line from home and all your customers info is there. Your original contracts are the single biggest asset your company has. Copy the terms page and signatory page and get the originals safely off site. Get your computer back up discs off site, leaving a copy at the office for convenience. There is a big difference in getting back up to full operation in a day or two as compared to weeks or longer after a disaster. Some items may never be able to be duplicated. Can you imagine if you were audited by IRS or State Revenue Department and had no back up? Torturous. A disaster plan should be written out and tested so that everyone in your office knows the drill. This should probably be practiced by any size company.

Bob W.

"CH®IS" wrote in message news:85opl.13703$Db2.1040@edtnps83...

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No Kidding EPA was in town this week a company down below me which went bankrupt is missing 2 gallons of Thalium which they used to process diamond grinding wheels. scary stuff to think some one carelessly discarded it. not knowing what it was. saw in name of rose with sir sean connery that was an assume movie.

I told my wife I wanted specs just like he was using in the movie when we were updating our prescriptions four months ago. I haven't seen her laugh like that for years.

No details revealed of course, but I went with a hardened inner room with multiple layers of alarm, access, video, and multiple communication paths.

The digital solution might be best long term, but some things like contracts, and security call list changes you want to keep those original signatures. I think if I went totally digital, I would still keep the original paper files in storage somewhere secure.

It turns out I'm winning on this one. We are going to go with a separate room for the filing cabinets, which will of course be behind locks, alarm and video (the video i'm not so sure of yet - half dvr for us, half demo unit for everyone else). As for the laptop, it's rarely left setup and will get stored with the filing cabinets when not in use.

Consider multiple DVR. One in the room, and one in another area of the buuilding with approach and internal cameras lopped through both systems, and loook at ftp on exception for those cameras to offsite storage.

Unfortunately not going to happen. Although I am hoping to secure the DVR somehow from simply being stolen (or hopefully even found), but that will have to wait to see what options I have.

There is some small chance that the DVR could end up in the secure room as well, but we'd have to find a solution for the monitor, keyboard and mouse cables. I know there are KVM switches that can be connected by Cat5, as one of our customers had his IT guy install one for his DVR. It would only be about 40 feet of wire to run between the DVR and the demo area.