 Hey, welcome back to Think, Take Away. I'm Andrew, the security guy, your Hibachi Talk co-host here with another public safety announcement on this production of Your Security Minute. Today, we're going to talk about access control. Access control is the main component for every security management solution. Access control is your perimeter, in its basic form, it's a wall, and when we place a pedestrian opening in a wall, you know, a doorway, we've lowered the physical security of the contents inside the wall. So in order to bolster the security of the opening, we put a door in the doorway. And then we put a mechanical lock on that door. And by doing so, we've created an access control system based upon someone having a key to open the door. Now this may work well enough for doors that aren't used often or not used by many people. Still, mechanical lock sets do not create a record of who opened them. And there's no way to receive an alert when a mechanical door is forced open without the key. Mechanical access control can be difficult to manage when a large number of keys need to be issued to users. Mechanical keys are also easily copied, further lowering the lowering security of the opening. Now modern electronic access control systems provide for an electronic key to be issued to each door user. Now the key might be a card or a code or a biometric credential, like a fingerprint or an iris scan, or a combination of the two. Of utmost importance is that modern electronic access control systems also track the open and closed position of the door. This allows the users to receive a forced door alarm when the door is open without a proper key being presented. It also allows for door held open alarms to be programmed so that doors aren't left ajar by accident or on purpose. Now this door position monitoring is what separates access control systems from electronic door opening systems. Modern access control systems also track all user transactions by date and time, and can prevent users from entering during unauthorized times, such as only allowing a cleaning crew to enter a building between 9 and 10 p.m. If your facility isn't engaged in retail operations, there's probably not a good reason for your doors to be open to the public. And this common security flaw creates opportunities for criminals or terrorists to enter your facility unimpeded and cause harm to your staff or your operations. So please, considering electronic access control to your company's security management program, your entire team will benefit from the additional protection. Who's got your back?