Towards a conceptual foundation for physical security: Case study of an IT department

Abstract

Protecting physical data, networks, and systems has become difficult, increasingly costly, and tougher to manage as technology and environments become more complex and dynamic. This paper presents a theoretical foundation for physical information technology (IT) security by developing a logical description based on a flow-based model. Within this model, a security machine is defined as a sequence of stages in which flow is identified and blocked in a multilevel blockage machine. The main focusses of the paper are the importance of having appropriate physical security in place, discussed with so-called onion/garlic models, and the notion of physical containment. The proposed representation is applied to an actual security plan for an IT department of a government ministry. The results suggest a viable approach to designing physical security strategies.