Organizations around the globe are looking for ways to reduce the risk of unauthorized entry due to tailgating and piggybacking. If not addressed appropriately, that risk can quickly turn into a liability, costing a company added time and expense, a bruised reputation and even the removal of members of the leadership team.
So how do you safeguard your building from the risk of intrusion? Security entrances are designed to provide a range of assurance levels, from guard assistance all the way up to very high security levels that are effective even when unstaffed. We’ll be discussing the latter – the unmanned, high security mantrap portal.
Risk Mitigation by Sheer Design
Offering the highest level of security available in an entrance, the portal was designed to completely prevent the wrong person from gaining access to a building. These doors are so good at what they do, that Fortune 500 technology, financial and insurance companies are using them to secure the confidential information stored at their data centers and corporate headquarters.
Here’s how a security mantrap portal works:
- Upon presenting a valid credential, the first door opens and the user steps inside.
- An overhead system scans the compartment to ensure the user is alone.
- Optional secondary verification: a biometric device (such as facial recognition) verifies the user’s identity.
- The second door opens to allow entry into the secure area.
But, what if someone tries to follow the authorized user into the compartment? What if an angry spouse or irate customer steals a credential and tries to pass through the portal? Let’s take a deeper look into the integrated technologies that work alongside the portal to secure the most sensitive of assets.
Only One Person at a Time
It’s understood that what makes a swinging door with an access device weak is that an authorized user can hold the door open for a number of others to enter. Security portals take the pressure off employees by completely preventing more than one person from passing through at a time.
Boon Edam mantrap portals enforce single entry using an overhead sensor system called StereoVision 2®. Once a user presents their credentials and the door opens, the StereoVision system begins an initial scan of the compartment, verifying the user is alone. Once the doors close completely behind the user, the system conducts a secondary scan, confirming that someone didn’t jump into the portal at the last minute, as the door was closing.
StereoVision during entry (inbound into the secure area) is a standard feature on Boon Edam mantrap portals, but organizations looking to closely monitor who is in the secure area at all times can select StereoVision for both inbound and outbound traffic.
Not Just One Person, But the Right Person
A user has presented a valid credential at the outside of the portal. A sensor system has confirmed they are inside the door alone. The next step involves the installation of an interior biometric device for secondary authentication. Why is this necessary?
Imagine this scenario: An employee’s husband decides to drive to your facility. He is determined to confront one of his wife’s colleagues. With his wife’s access badge in hand, he steps up to the portal, presents her credentials, and enters the door. The portal verifies that he is alone. An interior biometric device is the difference between this unauthorized person getting to his wife’s colleague, and not. How does it work?
The biometric device is capable of detecting two things in this scenario: (1) the husband isn’t enrolled in the biometric system and (2) even if he was enrolled, his biometrics do not match the on-file biometrics of the badge owner. In short, it is much harder for the husband to steal his wife’s eyes, fingerprint, face, etc. to gain access to the building.
To support two-factor authentication, Boon Edam’s mantrap security portals can be equipped with a special internal post that can house virtually any biometric device made by any company.
Two-Factor Authentication in Action
A video is worth a thousand words. Watch the clip below to see how a mantrap portal coupled with a biometric device can mitigate security risk at your facility.
