Server Room Signage

[BFCIT]

Hi all,

 

Interested to learn whether all of you in private or public sector have signs on your server room door which advertise that it is indeed the server room?

 

We currently have a sign that says "Server Room - No unauthorised access".

 

I don't like the fact that this essentially advertising the location of our server room to potential thieves etc - is there any best practice guidance on this topic? How do you do it?

 

Thanks

[caffrey]

No sign on ours, but you can hear it from way down the corridor!

[TechMonkey]

Surely it shouldn't matter, the security should be up to the task of keeping the kit secure. Security through obscurity is no security at all.

[Gurtlush]

We have a sign (which lives in my desk drawer) i've been asked a few times to put it up but never will. We tend to store equipment in the server room as well so never want it advertised.

[AJWhite1970]

We have a sign on our comms room door...

 

[hallb15]

Server room? My office is the server room!

[thebatman]

The only sign we have on ours (along with any other room at has a UPS) says "This room contains UPS equipment" to keep the fire officer happy. Having a sign advertising that it is a server room is making the risk higher.

[just_david]

Ours were always unsigned, but also kept secure.

 

I actually worked somewhere where we had a break in and the server room was targeted.

£20k of kit gone, though luckily it was just 2 mac pro's and about 10 digibeta decks, they left the raid arrays thank god, but they damaged a few fiber cables.

 

We were advised by insurance and police to unmark the door, and have the security inside the room rather than outside. big roller shutters mark and signs mark the room as a target, and thieves will just bring appropriate kit.

 

Have a rubbish wooden door and they'll ignore it or only bring an axe. get through that door and see the roller shutters, give up and go home.

 

tl;dr take the sign down

[jimmy_2k]

Our server room is within our office so it has some roller doors but no lock. The main door is locked. My old school you had to go into the basement though one door and then the next door had signs on it. Mostly to stop contractors simply walking in out of curiosity.

[hardtailstar]

The question should be..... "I have a sign on my server room door, is my disaster recovery up to date?, will the insurance cover my equipment?"

[Katy]

The main server room has "S1" on the door, but unfortunately it has two tiny windows in the door so you can just look in and see all the flashing lights. It's inside the CCF store room (used to be our office but we moved to somewhere with daylight) which itself is secured, so you'd have to know it was there.

Junior school server room door has nothing at all on it, the only way to tell it's different to the rest is the brand of the lock barrel differs to the rest of the (new build) building, and the cool air coming out from around the door, and the noise.

Other comms rooms are unmarked, one looks like a cleaning cupboard and another is at the back of one of our stores which itself looks like an office.

 

Edit: the one at the back of the store is obvious though as there's a huge section of trunking overflowing with purple cat5e cables which makes a very obvious 90 degree bend through the wall

Edited October 17, 2017 by Katy

[just_david]

The question should be..... "I have a sign on my server room door, is my disaster recovery up to date?, will the insurance cover my equipment?"

 

or a more interesting question - whats it insured for and whats it worth?

 

and where can i buy a box of matches?

[hardtailstar]

or a more interesting question - whats it insured for and whats it worth?

 

and where can i buy a box of matches?

 

Electrical fault?

[dry]

No signage. Also, we leave some bait (faulty but shiny looking) equipment in an obvious place on the way to the server room in an effort to deter thieves from taking the actually valuable stuff.

[BFCIT]

Thanks for all the replies! Some useful info above, obviously we take other steps to ensure the security and are looking into CCTV for the server room but its a good starting point knowing what other peoples opinions are on this subject area - Thanks!

[pete]

Surely it shouldn't matter, the security should be up to the task of keeping the kit secure. Security through obscurity is no security at all.

 

But obscurity (having to kick in 5-6 identical doors before finding the right one) may help plod arrive and scare them off before they've nicked the servers. We're not relying on it to keep them secure, but we also don't leave clearly-labelled high-value targets lying around.

[TechMonkey]

I'm not saying put a big flashing neon sign out side the door but the door should not be easily kicked in. Make it troublesome to get in and they will either give up or be delayed enough that the alarm will be responded to. I like the idea of a shutter on the inside. Not likely to be known, stumps them as they may not be prepared and if they do know it may be more trouble than it is worth

 

The scenario more likely is that they know what rooms is the server room from having asked a student, being ex-students or having had a look around. Just not having sign doesn't mean they won't know where it is.

[forkies]

To be honest most of the time thieves are more interested in laptops, desktops and projectors. They want things they can easily carry and that are easy to flog. Server rooms generally aren’t the target, your ICT suites, laptops trolleys and classroom projectors will be hit well in advance of the server room.

However, we do not mark our server room door. It has recently been moved from another building so no one knows where it is really. Physical security and intruder alarms are more effective than not signing a door.

[nicholab]

To be honest most of the time thieves are more interested in laptops, desktops and projectors. They want things they can easily carry and that are easy to flog. Server rooms generally aren’t the target, your ICT suites, laptops trolleys and classroom projectors will be hit well in advance of the server room.

However, we do not mark our server room door. It has recently been moved from another building so no one knows where it is really. Physical security and intruder alarms are more effective than not signing a door.

 

I do know somewhere criminal types went through the wall so in a new build is it a brick wall? They wanted iPads.

[forkies]

I do know somewhere criminal types went through the wall so in a new build is it a brick wall? They wanted iPads.

 

No, 1960s existing building very very thick brick walls. Took our air con engineers long enough to get through with a core cutter on the internal wall.

[mavhc]

Surely it shouldn't matter, the security should be up to the task of keeping the kit secure. Security through obscurity is no security at all.

 

This is always misinterpreted, Security via obscurity is bad, but security with obscurity is fine. Eg make sure you're using AES, but don't need to tell anyone you're using AES

[dapaulio]

No sign on ours, but you can hear it from way down the corridor!

 

Second that, here too. Sign or no sign it’s pretty obvious what’s behind that door [emoji23]

 

Doubt they would even try to be fair and not worth it. Second floor room. Wires in the back, secured from the front and rails that lock. Not a quick job to get one server out.

 

The ground floor computer room with 35 pc in is the more likely target

Edited October 20, 2017 by dapaulio

[sparkeh]

No sign. However the main server cab is located in our 'strong room' that also has the safe in it. Pretty obvious there something in there due to the serious looking door. The walls are typically robust Victorian affairs that took two guys with sledgehammers a day to make a hole in elsewhere in the school ("we'll have that done by break time" lol )

 

Anyone gets through that before being detected deserves whatever they can get their hands on!

[FN-GM]

No sign. However I'm not bothered either way

[jonespw]

Our server room is quite inconspicuous except for the slight hum that comes through into our office due to the poorly insulated walls. But no there is no indication other than that to say its a server room. The room is kept locked at all times.