There’s something innately interesting, mysterious, and downright sexy about heists. The average American crime drama drenched in over-the-top schemes, action-packed scenes, and absurd plots nearly causes stampedes when it hits the box office. And who doesn’t smash their near-drooling face against the TV at the mere mention of a “French art robbery?” We all love a great heist. Well… almost all of us. As a facility manager, heist movies don’t have quite the same magnetism. But get this: your facility’s biggest weak point isn’t its cameras, alarm system, firewalls, or security officers. In fact, your biggest liability is likely shoved in some cobwebbed boxes and slightly-crusty USB sticks. What do you need to plan a good heist? Some blueprints.
But what happens when blueprints themselves are the target of the heist?
Somewhere, deep in your DNA, you have an overwhelming need to prevent property theft, improve occupant safety, and eliminate risky security incidents. In fact, 49 percent of facility managers are worried about their facility’s safety right now. To be fair, 83 percent of people believe crime has increased over the past year. Meanwhile, 39 percent are worried about their workplace’s physical security capabilities. So, this worry isn’t baseless.
Digging for Blue Gold
Blueprints spell out your facility. They’re basically a facility recipe. Construction crews bring some ingredients, follow the recipe, and… BAM! Facility. But only around 16 percent of the total cost to own and operate a facility is actually related to that first construction. The other 80+ percent involves ongoing operations. Your blueprints help you perform ongoing maintenance, plan for upgrades, retrofit when needed, and understand the ins and outs of your facility. So, there’s a good chance you have a crate-load of blueprints sitting around somewhere.
But where? Where should you put these insanely-important pieces of information gold?
Something that important sounds like it belongs in an old paint-chipped off-white bucket, a $25 USB drive from the “everything” isle at Loblaws, or a half-soggy box peppered with misplaced packing tape, right?
So, that’s usually what happens.
Blueprints get scattered around basements, slowly absorbed and hoarded by departments, and eventually lost to time. And there are plenty of reasons that sucks for everyone involved. But we’re not going to focus on how this incredibly-common blueprint storage “strategy” reduces productivity, destroys profits, and aggravates employees. We’ve done that. Instead, let’s talk about how those blueprints put your facility at risk of significant security issues.
Facility Security and Your Blueprints
Want to know every nook-and-cranny of a facility’s security infrastructure? You just need some blueprints. Snatching a few loose pieces of paper from a basement doesn’t take master criminals. But losing those pieces of paper can absolutely put your facility at risk of physical security breaches. Worse, having blueprints stolen puts you in the awkward position of essentially announcing to the world that your facility is under threat. That’s always embarrassing.
We get it. Most facilities don’t harbor secret piles of gold, diamonds, or nuclear codes. But many facilities are scattered in trade secrets, data, and other high-value assets. In today’s world, we like to think about data and cybersecurity. However, robberies are still a real threat. And over 25,000 of them happen every year in Canada. Sure! There are high-profile cases that make the news. But thousands of physical data theft incidents go below the radar. In fact, 49 percent of data breaches aren’t cyber at all.
Are most criminals going to leverage blueprints to plan a master heist against your facility? Probably not. Will they snap up some blueprints and try to sell them or use them to access other sensitive data? You bet.
Data Security and Your Blueprints
Seventy-one percent of facility managers believe that cybersecurity is a top-level threat. In fact, facility managers are spending significant piles of dough to invest in a ton of state-of-the-art cybersecurity solutions. But most digital threat actors aren’t “elite hackers” trying to force their way into your systems with long trench coats, cutting-edge development skills, and never-ending lines of green-coloured code against a black background.
That’s movie stuff.
Instead, McKinsey data suggests that over 70 percent of global cyberattacks come from financially motivated criminals using technically simple tactics. In other words, threat actors are more likely to swipe a piece of loose paper lying around your facility than they are to “hack in” and attack systems. In fact, around 21 percent of data breaches involve paper documents.
Here’s the problem. Only 33 percent of facility managers and business owners prevent unauthorised access to document storage areas, and 65 percent are worried contractors are leaving critical paper documents around. All told, 71 percent of the surveyed respondents admit they have picked up sensitive paper documents (like blueprints!) lying around in public spaces.
That’s scary stuff! The average cost of a data breach is a whopping $3.92 million. Your blueprint storage woes could literally cost you millions of dollars and a few bottles of Tylenol. For healthcare facility managers, things get scarier. Blueprints can lead to PHI theft, which opens up an entirely different can of worms.
Securing Your Facility’s Blueprints
Don’t let paper blueprints become your security system’s Achilles’ heel. Are you ready to digitise those paper documents, secure those flash drives, and bake security into your blueprint strategy? At DCM Inc., the Drawing Specialists have the blueprint for securing your… well, blueprints!
Our one-of-a-kind digital blueprint storage and organisation solution — echo — was purpose-built to secure your must-have facility blueprints. Not only does echo help you remove paper security concerns, but it brings accessibility and searchability to your entire blueprint library. In fact, echo can transform decades of blueprint mismanagement into hyper-searchable databases in weeks.
Stop wasting time, energy, money, and resources looking for the right documents. Don’t let loose pieces of paper introduce you to financially damaging and reputation-eroding data breaches. And stop destroying employee morale with confusing blueprint search-and-rescue missions. Our echo solution modernises your entire blueprint archive.
Are you ready for the future of blueprint storage? Contact us. We’re ready to help you secure your precious paper blueprints.