Finlays make tea and coffee. The company has installed biometric access control at its Pontefract site to protect its server rooms.
Finlays already had a PAC access system for outside doors, and number code locks were fitted to the doors of their server rooms. In a review of security, Finlays wanted only its IT staff to control access to the four server rooms. As IT staff work standard office hours, after hours the code for the locks would have to be shared with others or one of the IT team would have to return to site. Finlays had ruled out a card or tag-based access control system in case of lost, stolen or borrowed cards. A number of security companies were approached, including Stanley Security, awarded the contract. Stephen Firth, Finlay’s Group Senior IT Support Engineer, said: “It’s a name we knew and we have a lot of Stanley product on site. We also have a PAC system which shares the same software that the Stanley biometric system runs on, so it meant we could easily add to the existing system and view both using the same software, although they are run as stand alone systems for added security.”
Installed were ievo fingerprint readers (pictured) to doors. Image reading sensors take a detailed scan of a finger from the surface and subsurface levels of the skin, to capture a digital image and protecting against fake and spoof fingerprints. Specific data from the image is converted into a digital template for identifying a fingerprint. Providing a user presents a finger that matches a stored user template, access will be granted. ievo captures clear, clean images, even when surface features are absent or hard to distinguish due to age, dirt, finger pressure and skin or environmental conditions.
Finlays say that they are pleased with the new biometric access control, for the security required but also convenience. Stephen Firth adds: “now, IT has full control of who enters the server rooms and there is an audit trail. We don’t have to worry about who has keys to the IT office and who knows the code for the server rooms door locks. What’s more, IT can open any door on the system remotely should it be required, rather than having to return to site. With one of the racks on our server belonging to someone else, that’s an important consideration should they need to gain access out of office hours.”
Visit www.stanleysecurity.co.uk.
