A new approach to security engineering

Security engineering is often brushed over during the planning phase for many government and industrial installations, even though there may be a very real threat. When considered, the usual solution has been to develop a security measure that addresses the threat as defined by the last successful attack and not the whole threat capability. A selection of case histories, military and civilian, suggests that co-ordinated and effective security planning at the project planning phase would have saved at least 40% in whole project costs and often much more. The article offers a security engineering planning process that encourages synergy between infrastructure, manpower and equipment, whilst remaining sufficiently flexible to meet the emerging threat. Most importantly, this process will allow effective risk management of capital investment for security works. It should be noted that this process supplements the usual minimum protective construction standards in use by organisations.