Credential Overflow

Thousands of organizations struggle with a common door access security issue known as Credential Overflow. 

Credential Overflow occurs when the number of active credentials in the system outnumber, sometimes drastically, the number of active cardholders.  If a company's door access system is not equipped to handle the causes of this issue, they may face some serious security risks as a result. 

What causes Credential Overflow?  There are two primary causes: 

1. Lack of Database Communication

Often times, a company's active user database, such as their employee or HR database does not communicate with their access control system seamlessly.  If those two databases do not share information, then the process for activating and deactivating users and credentials usually involves two steps. 

Step One:  Enroll/Remove them from HR
Step Two: Enroll/Remove them from Access Control System

This is not very effective, as any time the second step is missed, cards remain active in the system long after the user has left. 

2. Badge Re-Issuance

Many times cardholders lose badges and ask for reprints, forgetting to have their old cards deactivated at that time.  If the system doesn't support automatic deactivation of old credentials as soon as a new one is printed, the old badge can stay active in the system forever, creating an imbalance in the number of active cards and cardholders. 

How do we fix it?

1. If the access control database can "sync" up with the customer's existing cardholder database, like Active Directory or HR, then this allows for more of a single-step activation and deactivation process.  Once a person has been enrolled or removed from the HR database, they will no longer have active access priviliges in the access control system either.  This is far easier for all parties involved - and much more secure. 

2. Look for door access systems that automatically deactivate old badges as soon as a new badge is printed.  This will help to eliminate the issue with users having numerous credentials associated with their record in the system. 


Lindsay Cornell is the Director of Sales for BadgePass, Inc. BadgePass manufactures cutting edge Door Access, Photo ID, and Visitor Tracking software. Visit www.badgepass.com for more information.

How Should I Badge My Visitors?

If you are thinking about ways to badge and identify visitors at your facility, congrats!  You have probably already considered solutions for properly registering and tracking your guests which means you are well on your way to a more secure facility!  By implementing an electronic visitor registration system at your organization, you can ensure that each visitor is properly identified and registered simply by scanning their state or federally issued ID.  Now, you just have to decide which visitor badging solution is best for you. 

There are several possible options to consider for visitor badging. 

Option One:  Temporary Adhesive Labels

This is by far the most popular solution for visitor badging!  Why?  Because badge designs can be customized not only with the company’s name, but also with pertinent visit information like visitor name, date, and person being visited.  You can even print photos on temporary labels!  Plus, you can do all of this at a relatively low price, since plain adhesive badges are fairly inexpensive. 

Things to consider when implementing temporary adhesive labels:

1.       How long will visitors be in the building?

-          The longer visitors are in your facility, the more likely they are to lose their adhesive badge.  For long-term visitors, pre-printed PVC badges may be a more effective solution.

2.       What information do you want to print on each badge?

-          The nice thing about adhesive badges is that they can be customized for each visitor!  Some of the most common things I see on visitor label designs include a company logo, the visitors name, the type of visitor (Vendor, Contractor, Volunteer, etc.), the date of the visit, and the location and/or person they are visiting. 

3.       How important are visitor photos?

-          If you are considering printing your visitors’ photos on badges, it might be a good idea to look into color label printers.  While they are more expensive, they greatly improve the image quality!

4.       Do you want labels to expire after a certain amount of time?

-          Though temporary labels can be easy and inexpensive, there is always a concern that visitors may try to reuse those badges to visit the facility at a later date/time without checking in.  Printing the date on the badge is one solution for this issue.  However, many customers look into time-expiring labels to prevent visitor badges from being reused.  These badges bleed through red and read VOID 24 hours after issuance, making it easy for employees to recognize if a visitor is trying to dodge the check-in process. 

Option Two:  Pre-Printed PVC Badges

Many customers prefer to use pre-printed badges for their visitors.  Each of these badges will be printed in advance on a color card printer, allowing you to print your company’s name and logo on the front, along with any other relevant information. 

Since these badges are printed in advance, they will not have visitor specific information on them.  However, they are much more durable than temporary labels and can be reused time and time again and assigned to a different visitor each time they are used.   Attach these badges to a lanyard or badge clip/reel and you can easily identify who is wearing a visitor badge in your facility.  Plus, you don’t have to worry as much about visitors losing their IDs as they walk around! 

So what is the answer?

Nobody knows your organization better than you do!  Which means you are the only one who knows what solution is the best fit for you. 

Though there are many options to consider, no matter whaat you choose will allow for an easier visitor identification process and help to improve your company's security! 

Lindsay Cornell is the Director of Sales for BadgePass, Inc. BadgePass manufactures cutting edge Visitor Management, Photo ID and Access Control software.  www.badgepass.com

Granting Visitors Temporary Access to Your Facility

What Should My Policy Be?

Many organizations are beginning to electronically register and track visitors that come and go from the facility.  In order to do this, visitors are typically asked to present some type of ID upon arrival, thereby verifying they are who they say they are, and that ID is scanned upon check-in.  Then visitors can then be issued temporary visitor badges for the duration of their stay. 

Organizations typically handle the flow of visitors in their facility one of two ways:

1.       Guests are always escorted by an employee or host.

2.       Guests are allowed to access the facility without an escort.

The more secure the organization, the more concerned they typically are with guest access.  If guests and visitors are to be allowed access without an escort, they may require some level of integration with a door access system.  If this is the case, visitor badges may be printed on proximity or smartcards to grant visitors temporary access rights within the system. 

Why might you consider integrating your visitor management system with access control?

• You want to give certain visitors access to particular doors in the building that may be locked in your door access system
• To limit unauthorized guests and personnel from accessing restricted areas
• In order to track the activity of everyone – even guests – who have entered the building.

Granting visitors temporary access rights is certainly not uncommon these days.  As more and more organizations incorporate access control and electronic visitor management systems in their facilities, they see the need to give visitors access to specific doors in the building for the duration of their visit. 

Things to consider when thinking about integrating your Visitor Management and Access Control systems:

1.       Which doors would you like visitors to have access to in the building?

2.       Would you like to create multiple visitor groups with different access privileges? (Ex: Contractors may be able to access different doors than Volunteers)

3.       Is there an easy way to deactivate visitor credentials if they accidently leave without returning their badge?

The easiest thing to do is implement a fully integrated Visitor Management and Access Control system from day one.  That way you can easily activate and deactivate visitor credentials from the same system, thereby eliminating the hassle of having to manage access rights from two seperate systems. 

Start thinking about how you’d like to implement both Visitor Management and Access Control within your facility in the future.  Taking every possible scenario into account when choosing which system to deploy at your organization will help you to be best prepared for the day when you do get ready to move forward. 

Lindsay Cornell is the Director of Sales for BadgePass, Inc.  BadgePass manufactures cutting edge ID Badging, Visitor Management and Access Control software solutions.  Learn more at www.badgepass.com.

What are the Benefits of a Photo ID System?

Getting serious about your organization’s security?  Beyond offering visual identification, Photo ID badges can be used for a variety of applications from Electronic Door Access to Cafeteria Point of Sale Systems.  How can you utilize photo IDs to help increase security in your facility? 

Employee Morale

In larger companies and organizations, photo IDs often help to encourage familiarity among staff members.  Once a policy has been instituted mandating the wearing of Photo IDs at all times, employees often feel more secure and more confident approaching employees in other departments.  Photo IDs can instill a sense of community among employees and often encourage people to approach those in the building not wearing IDs to ensure they belong. 

Access Control

Sure, you may be printing Photo IDs for everyone right now, but have you considered using those IDs to access doors within your facility?  By printing badges on a smart or proximity cards, you can electronically control which doors certain employees have access to, thereby eliminating the need for manual key locks.  Without a valid credential, employees will not be granted access to those doors.  Further, you can restrict access to doors certain employees should not be in, like the IT or Server Room.  Best of all, if an employee loses an ID badge, you can deactivate that card’s privileges and print them another!  Without rekeying an entire facility, there is no way to “deactivate” a lost key. 

Visitor Safety

Once you’ve identified all of the employees within your building, it may be time to consider a visual form of ID for all of your visitors as well.  Visitor Management Systems that print temporary ID badges are an easy and effective way to check in visitors electronically while also printing them a badge that they can wear during their visit.  This helps to easily identify those who are guests and also helps employees to feel comfortable approaching visitors without badges and escorting them to the main check-in desk to be registered. 

Other Applications

Feel free to get creative with your photo ID!  Do you have a Time and Attendance system that requires a barcode or magnetic stripe for employees to clock in and out each day?  Are you thinking of instituting a Point of Sale system in your cafeteria that allows for employees to purchase meals with their ID card?  All of these things are entirely possible, depending on the card design and technology you choose to use with your badges.  Whenever you choose to purchase a Photo ID system, think of all the possible applications you may want to implement in the future and keep those in mind when designing your cards. 

Lindsay Cornell is the Director of Sales for BadgePass, Inc.  BadgePass offers secure ID Badging, Visitor Management and Access Control software.  For more information, visit www.badgepass.com. 

Is Your Current Two-Step Enrollment Process a Security Risk?

In recent news, it was announced that a 19 year old used his old ID badge from a program he took part in at AOL to gain access to the facility for two months after the program had ended!  He lived in the building day and night, using his old access credential to gain access to different areas on the campus.  It was nearly two months before a security guard caught him and kicked him out. 

Stories like this beg the question, "How could something like this have happened?" 

The reality is, this happens every single day!  We just don't always hear about it because these stories don't always take place at high profile locations like AOL Headquarters and don't usually involve two-month-long squatters.  But not deactivating security privileges in Card Access Control systems is a serious threat to an organization's security, and it gets overlooked all the time! 

Think about your own access control system.  How do you add and remove people from the system?  If you are like most customers that I talk to on a regular basis, you probably print your ID badges in one location and then employees are asked to take those new credentials to a seperate location, like Security, to have their access control privileges activated in that system.  It is typically a two-step process. 

The same thing happens when a person leaves the company.  The first database they are removed from is HR or Payroll.  (You and I both know that person isn't getting a paycheck anymore!)  Then, someone in HR sends an email to a person in security, notifying them to deactivate that person's access rights in the system.  Again, we are back to that two-step process. 

This works fine if your security personnel are always at work and constantly checking their emails.  But what happens when they go on vacation for a week and miss all of those emails?  Or when they are at lunch and overlook the email about the terminated employee when they return from their break?  Circumstances like those are the ones we often forget to account for when implementing security systems like Access Control, yet they play a critical role in our organizations' security! 

When choosing to implement a Door Access system, be sure to think about the way that credentials will be activated and deactivated in the system. Ask yourself a few simple questions:

- Is there an easy way to maintain the current database of active cardholders?
- Can you import new employees into the system easily? 
- If you deactivate someone in HR, is there a way for their credential to be automatically deactivated?

No matter what the size of your organization, security is always a concern. The more automated the credentialing process is at your facility, the less likely you are to have issues like the recent security breach at AOL. 

Read the full story about the AOL security breach here.

Lindsay Cornell is the Director of Sales for BadgePass, Inc. BadgePass manufactures cutting edge ID Badging, Visitor Management and Access Control software. Visit www.badgepass.com for more information.

Tips for Printing Quality Photo IDs

When printing quality Photo IDs, it is important to know what information, and how much information, will be included on your Photo ID. The elements included on your Photo ID will help determine the features you should look for in your Photo ID System.

Basic Photo ID

Custom card design – Photo ID software will help you design a card from scratch using your own images, graphics and logos – creating a unique and custom card that best fits the needs of your organization.

Cardholder information – Easily add cardholder information to your ID cards! You can connect to your existing database information and/or choose to enroll users via Driver’s License Scanning.

Photo – Whether you are looking for high quality images or a simple webcam, adding a photo to your card design will ensure an extra level of security.

Barcode – Barcodes are a cost effective way to include data on your cards that can be scanned and used in other systems, such as time and attendance or cafeteria POS and vending.

Advanced Photo ID

Signature capture – A signature pad will allow you to electronically capture the signature of each cardholder for placement within the card design.

Smartcards – There are many types of technology cards, such as contactless smartcards, that can be store cardholder information for use in other systems, like Access Control.

Magnetic stripe – Magnetic strips are another way to include data on your cards that can be scanned and used in other systems.

Lamination – Laminating printers apply a thin film to the card with heat and pressure during printing to protect against wear.

The more secure you want your credentials to be, the more advanced your Photo ID software requirements will be.  Take all of these things into consideration when choosing which system to implement in your own organization. 

Lindsay Cornell is the Director of Sales for BadgePass, Inc. BadgePass manufactures cutting edge ID Badging, Visitor Management and Access Control software. Visit www.badgepass.com for more information.

How Can I Streamline Enrollment into My Access Control System?

The biggest security risk in access control is dealing with a two-step process for the enrollment and/or removal of cards.  In most systems, cards are printed in one place and then cardholders must take their credential to another location to have their access rights granted before they have access to any doors in the facility.  The same two-step process occurs for deactivation of credentials.  The cardholder is removed from one database, but then an email notification or alert is sent to someone who then must manually remove them from a separate system before their credential is turned off in access control.  This two-step system is not only time consuming; it is putting thousands of organizations at risk for security breaches every day!

The best way to streamline the enrollment process is to start with badge issuance.  By integrating the assignment of access control rights and privileges into your badge issuance interface, you can eliminate the need for a second enrollment step.  Simply enroll a user’s information, capture a photo and print them a card.  While the card is printing, the smart card number can be read directly off the card during the print process and saved back to the database, preventing the user from having to manually enter that information.  Once the badge is printed, that credential, as well as the users’ access privileges, will be automatically activated in your access control system. 

Deactivation of badges can be simplified as well.  By tying your access control interface into your existing HR database, you can keep up to date with all of your currently active employees at any given time.  That way, as soon as an employee's information changes or new users are added/removed from the system, they will automatically be updated in your access control system.  This will keep you from manually having to go into your card access system to deactivate credentials whenever someone leaves or loses a badge.

Single-Step issuance.  It's really that easy!

Lindsay Cornell is the Director of Sales for BadgePass, Inc. BadgePass manufactures cutting edge ID Badging, Visitor Management and Access Control software. Visit www.badgepass.com for more information.