Archive for category: Access Control

By Gina Stuelke, CEO of Kenton Brothers

In our continuing series of educational posts, we love sharing the layered capabilities of access control systems.

Anti-passback is a security feature in an access control system that prevents a user from passing their access credential (like a key card or mobile badge) to another person for unauthorized entry. It requires users to “exit” before they can “re-enter” and enforces a logical sequence of “in” and “out” events to prevent fraudulent or unauthorized use of credentials.

Capabilities

Prevents Credential Sharing

• Purpose: Ensures that access cards or credentials aren’t passed between individuals to bypass security.
• Benefit: Stops unauthorized access by enforcing that a badge used to enter must also be used to exit before it can be used again

Enhances Occupancy Tracking

• Purpose: Keeps accurate logs of who is inside the building or specific areas.
• Benefit: Useful for emergency evacuations, audits, or real-time occupancy monitoring (e.g., for energy efficiency or space planning).

Supports Compliance and Safety Protocols

• Purpose: Helps meet regulatory or internal policies related to controlled access.
• Benefit: Assists with compliance in industries requiring strict access monitoring (e.g., data centers, pharmaceuticals, finance).

Deters Tailgating and Piggybacking

• Purpose: Discourages people from entering secured areas by following others without scanning a credential.
• Benefit: Strengthens per-person authentication, especially at critical security points.

Improves Audit and Incident Response

• Purpose: Maintains a more accurate access log history.
• Benefit: Allows faster and more reliable investigations when security breaches or incidents occur.

Enables Logical Access Pairing

• Purpose: Links physical access to logical access (e.g., network login).
• Benefit: Ensures users are logged into systems only when they are physically present in the building.

Increases Operational Control

• Purpose: Forces users to follow defined traffic patterns (e.g., enter through the main lobby, exit through designated doors).
• Benefit: Helps manage crowd flow, security checkpoint coverage, and staffing.

Reduces Risk of Occupancy Overload

• Purpose: Limits the number of people in a given area at any one time.
• Benefit: Useful for high-security zones, labs, or rooms with occupancy limits (fire code, clean rooms, etc.).

Industry Segments

Here’s a breakdown of how different commercial industries apply anti-passback:

Corporate Office Buildings

• Use Case: Preventing employees from “buddy-badging” others into secured areas.
• Example: Employees must badge in and out of a high-security R&D lab or executive suite.

Data Centers

• Use Case: Enforcing strict audit trails for every entry and exit.
• Example: Technicians cannot badge into a server room unless they’ve properly exited previously, helping ensure tight compliance with SOC 2 or ISO 27001.

Manufacturing and Warehousing

• Use Case: Managing time and attendance and ensuring safe evacuation procedures.
• Example: Workers badge in at the start of a shift; anti-passback ensures only present workers are recorded in the building for safety drills or emergencies.

Education and Research Institutions

• Use Case: Controlling access to restricted labs or testing facilities.
• Example: Students or researchers must badge out of clean rooms before they can re-enter, reducing contamination and enforcing accountability.

Healthcare Facilities

• Use Case: Securing medication storage or surgical zones.
• Example: Staff cannot re-enter drug dispensary rooms without properly badging out — this ensures individual access is logged and traceable.

Commercial Real Estate (Shared Workspaces, etc.)

• Use Case: Preventing non-tenant access in shared environments.
• Example: Tenants or contractors cannot “lend” badges to guests or friends to gain unauthorized access

Using Anti-Passback to Acclimate Employees Back to the Office

Anti-passback can be a strategic tool to help ease employees back into office routines while reinforcing attendance, accountability, and a sense of structure. Here’s how it can be thoughtfully used for return-to-office (RTO) efforts:

Reinforces Routine and Presence

• Benefit: Employees scan in and out each day, re-establishing regular work habits and physical presence.
• Tactic: Use the entry/exit data to support hybrid schedules — e.g., ensuring employees are present on their designated in-office days.

Supports a Trust-But-Verify Approach

• Benefit: Encourages autonomy while gently enforcing accountability.
• Tactic: Managers can use reports to confirm that team members are showing up consistently without intrusive check-ins.

Helps With Space Planning and Resource Allocation

• Benefit: Anti-passback data shows how many employees are in the office and when.
• Tactic: Use this insight to adjust cleaning schedules, security staffing, HVAC needs, or shared desk booking systems.

Encourages Safe Occupancy Monitoring

• Benefit: Promotes a sense of security for employees concerned about overcrowding or emergency preparedness.
• Tactic: Let employees know their presence is logged for emergency evacuation and space management purposes — not micromanagement.

Integrates Seamlessly with Wellness or Perk Programs

• Benefit: Pair office attendance with perks (e.g., free lunches, parking passes, wellness credits).
• Tactic: Trigger incentives based on verified in-office days via anti-passback logs (e.g., “badge in 3 days this week, get a coffee gift card”).

Reduces Badge Sharing in Hybrid Environments

• Benefit: Prevents employees from “gaming” the system by having a friend badge in for them.
• Tactic: Makes it clear that presence tracking is tied to legitimate entry/exit behavior, not just one-time check-ins.

Builds Data for HR and Facilities Team

• Benefit: Provides objective usage metrics over time.
• Tactic: HR can use this data to tailor RTO policies, and Facilities can monitor office re-engagement trends by team or department

Tips for Effective Implementation of Anti-Passback Features

Use Hardware That Supports Directional Logic

• Install entry and exit readers at all controlled points.
• Pair with turnstiles or optical gates where feasible for enforcement.

Define Logical vs Physical Anti-Passback

• Hard Anti-Passback: Denies entry if proper exit hasn’t occurred — strict.
• Soft Anti-Passback: Logs a violation but allows access — good for training or early adoption phases.

Set Grace Periods or Exceptions

• Allow for system errors or emergencies by permitting admin override or setting time-based resets (e.g., after midnight)

Use with Video Surveillance Integration

• Cross-reference access logs with video footage to verify compliance and investigate tailgating.

Combine with Mobile Credentials or Biometrics

• Reduces badge sharing even further.
• Encourages personalized access — especially valuable in high-risk zones.

Train Users and Security Staff

• Make sure everyone understands how anti-passback works.
  Provide clear signage and onboarding to avoid frustration.

Communication Tips to Ensure Success

• Frame anti-passback positively: as a way to ensure safety, comfort, and fairness, not as surveillance.
• Communicate clearly with employees about why it’s being implemented and how it benefits them.
• Provide self-service tools so employees can view their own access history and flag inconsistencies.

If you need help implementing Anti-passback technologies in your access control systems, we are here for you. Give us a call!