Analysis of Physical and Protective Barriers for Security

This assignment delves into the realm of security barriers, differentiating between physical and protective types. It explains the fundamental differences, emphasizing the role of physical barriers like fences and vehicle barriers as the outermost layer of security, and contrasting them with protective barriers designed to withstand worst-case threats. The document categorizes protective barriers into natural and structural types, providing examples such as mountains and man-made devices like fences. The assignment further clarifies when and why protective barriers should be established, focusing on traffic control, identity verification, and the creation of buffer zones. It also lists and explains three specific types of physical barriers: chain link fences, barricades, and tall gates, highlighting their significance in modern organizational security. References are provided at the end.

Running head: BARRIERS TO ENSURE SECURITY
BARRIERS TO ENSURE SECURITY
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author note

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1. Explain the differences between physical and protective barriers
Barrier types and their differences
Physical barriers are the most traditional form of ensuring that an organization or firm is
provided with proper security. Physical barriers in the context of physical security refer to
security systems such as building fences around premises, vehicle barriers and many more
that serve as outermost layer of security (Fennelly, 2016). These help in preventing or at least
delaying in the attacks by the criminals. Most common examples are tall fencing with barbed
wire, metal spikes or may be razor wire.
Protective barriers on the other hand are made use of to define the physical limits of a certain
installation, activity or a specific area. These on contrary to the physical barriers are designed
to act as a wall to the worst-case threats. These can be grouped into two major categories that
are natural and structural protective barriers (Hollnagel, 2016). The natural protective barriers
include mountains, deserts, and water obstacles while structural protective barriers include
man-made devices such as grills, bars, road blocks and many such things.
2. What are the two major categories of protective barriers?
Protective barriers- different categories
The two categories of protective barriers are: natural protective barriers and structural
protective barriers. Natural protective barriers are the mountains, deserts, ditches, cliffs, water
obstacles and other such terrains that cannot be easily traversed by individuals. The barriers
offer different benefits to a physical security posture (Kang, Zhang & Gao, 2016). These help
in preventing passage as well as cause delay in the occurrence of crimes.
Structural protective barriers unlike the natural barriers are man-made devices that include
fences, grills, bars and things as such. Building of structural barriers requires that the area

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must be measured and cost calculated before deploying any structures. The other important
thing is analyzing which structure best suits the scenario (Neille & Penn, 2015). The
structures built should be kept a check on for regular basis for any faults or defects that may
have cropped up.
3. When should protective barriers be established?
Reasons for deploying protective barriers
Protective barriers need to be deployed in cases where there is a need to control vehicular as
well as pedestrian traffic flow. These are required in entry-control points where checking of
identity cards is necessity. Defining some sort of buffer zone also comes under the purview of
protective barriers in the context of highly classified societies (Janssens, Talarico, Reniers &
Sörensen, 2015). These are needed in place where to some extent forced entry can be
delayed till the security personnel can reach up to the place.
Protective barriers are also required in place where personal assets need protection. At
construction sites there are many areas where there is risk of life and these are marked as
danger zone. These areas are sometimes highlighted with temporary barriers such as
temporary fences, big sign boards and many as such (Iacovidou & Purnell, 2016). Barriers
are sometimes seen a occupying a lot of space in areas where there is a lot of congestion.
4. List and explain three types of physical barriers and their significance as it relates to
an organization today
Types of physical barriers
a. Chain link Fence- This type of fencing provides most effective as well as affordable
methods of physical security. Chain link fence can be made to surround all the borders of a
property for protecting it not only animals as well as human intrusion. These are compatible

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as well with various types of gates. These have aesthetic as well as functional finish and these
are also good to look at being weather resistant at the same time. These even look amazing
and are extremely weather resistant at the same time (White, Ekin & Visinescu, 2017). It can
be said that for an organization chain link fence can prove to be effective providing security
to the premises and at the same time these can safeguard vital resources.
b. Barricades- These can be considered as temporary measures to safeguard a building from
sudden protests or outside disturbances. Though not a very strong physical security measure
but it can still delay in attacks and stop intruders. This can be said to be as a measure than can
be used by organizations in case of emergency in those places where permanent security
measures are absent.
c. Tall gates- These are common these days in front of many organizations. Generally made
up of metals such as iron these are strong enough for the intruders to break through. The best
example of this is in front of jails where it is there to ensure that the criminals do not get a
chance to get spared from the hands of law (McLeod, 2017). Thus these gates can be said to
as one of effective ways to ensure security of any place. It is tough for the intruders to break
through these.

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References
Fennelly, L. J. (2016). Effective physical security. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Hollnagel, E. (2016). Barriers and accident prevention. Routledge.
Iacovidou, E., & Purnell, P. (2016). Mining the physical infrastructure: Opportunities,
barriers and interventions in promoting structural components reuse. Science of the
Total Environment, 557, 791-807.
Janssens, J., Talarico, L., Reniers, G., & Sörensen, K. (2015). A decision model to allocate
protective safety barriers and mitigate domino effects. Reliability Engineering &
System Safety, 143, 44-52.
Kang, J., Zhang, J., & Gao, J. (2016). Analysis of the safety barrier function: Accidents
caused by the failure of safety barriers and quantitative evaluation of their
performance. Journal of loss prevention in the process industries, 43, 361-371.
McLeod, R. W. (2017). Human factors in barrier management: Hard truths and
challenges. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 110, 31-42.
Neille, J., & Penn, C. (2015). Beyond physical access: a qualitative analysis into the barriers
to policy implementation and service provision experienced by persons with
disabilities living in a rural context.
White, G., Ekin, T., & Visinescu, L. (2017). Analysis of protective behavior and security
incidents for home computers. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 57(4), 353-
363.