How to create a business security checklist from the beginning

Checklists can be an incredibly useful tool in running and managing a business. When they’re designed properly, they provide a carefully thought-out framework that allows employees to make insightful checks in an efficient, effective manner.

Creating checklists isn’t always easy, however, and you need to make sure you start with strong foundations. Below, we explore how to create a business security checklist in particular, by exploring some of the main principles it needs to include.

Complete a comprehensive risk assessment
The first step in creating a security checklist will always be risk assessment. One of the biggest mistakes you can make in security more generally is to assume that you know what your vulnerabilities are, and risk assessments provide an excellent opportunity to challenge these assumptions.

In many cases, it can be worth having external teams come in to help you with the risk assessments. Fresh eyes will often spot problems that you and your team have become blind to, which can be invaluable.

Break it down
When it comes to making the actual checklist, you’ll want to break it down into various components.

Physical security
A good place to start with is the physical security of any brick-and-mortar premises you operate. Whether this is an office block or a mechanic’s workshop, you can look at basic issues, such as how entry and exit points are secured, what monitoring and alarm systems are in place, and how these systems are inspected and maintained.

Digital security
In the modern world, digital security is often just as important as physical security. In fact, in many contexts, it’s inappropriate to differentiate between the two, as many physical spaces are secured using digital systems that can be hacked into.

In your checklist, look at how digital assets are secured, how digital security interacts with physical security, and how encryption, multi-factor authentication and firewalls are used to maintain digital security.

Access control
Security would be quite easy if you could just lock information and physical assets away and then never have to touch them. This isn’t how businesses work, and where weaknesses arise is often in how access control is managed to facilitate the effective use of these digital and physical spaces.
Your checklist needs to cover all the ways that access to digital and physical spaces is managed.
Whether you’re using key management solutions from providers like Traka or digital authentication systems, the checklist needs to be designed with these in mind.

Incident response
It’s also imperative that you have a series of incident response plans. Your checklist needs to cover response plans for break-ins, evacuations, fire events, and medical incidents. It also needs to cover the accessibility and validity of emergency protocols and numbers.

Creating a security checklist is an excellent opportunity for you to better understand your business in a number of ways. It's important to take your time, and be sure to engage any external experts for assistance in areas that you’re not totally sure about.