Book Review: Physical Security

Butterworth-Heinemann; Elsevier.com; 204 pages; $79.95.

​The second edition of Physical Security: 150 Things You Should Know is an excellent reference for security practitioners and managers. Written by Lawrence J. Fennelly and Marianna Perry, CPP, the book covers the most common concepts and concerns in security today; from lighting and CPTED to cyber and drones. To borrow from the book’s opening lines, it is a roadmap to building and enhancing an organization’s security program.

The authors do a great job of organizing an overwhelming amount of material. The book is likely to serve more as a go-to reference for a particular topic rather than to be read from cover to cover. 

A security practitioner with a fundamental understanding of security will find this book to be an exceptional resource for planning security upgrades, training security staff, and finding justification for best practices with the C-suite. Many sections are nothing more than easy-to-follow checklists, so retrieving the information is remarkably simple and quick.   

The broad range of topics addressed in the book makes it impossible for the authors to dig too deep on any single issue, so many of the sections do not offer full explanations. This, however, does not take anything away from the quality or usefulness of the book. 

The concepts are outlined in carefully selected paragraphs that provide just enough detail to jog the memory or provide a starting point for further research from more-focused sources. All in all, this book offers great ideas and best practices for a broad range of security topics, not just physical security.

Reviewer: Yan Byalik, CPP, is the security administrator for the City of Newport News Virginia. He is a graduate of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets and has worked in a variety of security roles in higher education, amusement park, and telecommunication security sectors since 2001. He is the assistant regional vice president for ASIS Region 5A in southeast Virginia.