INTRODUCTION TO

INDUSTRIAL
SECURITY
CONCEPTS

CHAPTER 5
PERSONNEL SECURITY
 Learning Objectives
• Explain personnel security;
• Enumerate the checks included in pre- employment
screening;
• Enumerate pre-employment screening measures;
• Enumerate the purpose and explain the importance
of ongoing personnel security; and
• Enumerate ongoing personnel security measures;
• Explain exit procedures.
 PERSONNEL SECURITY

- It includes all the security measures designed to prevent un-

suitable individuals or persons of doubtful loyalty to the gov-
ernment, from gaining access to classified matter or to any se-
curity facility, and to prevent appointment, or retention as em-
ployees of such individuals.
- Generally, it embraces such security measures as personnel
security investigation, security orientation, and indoctrination
and security education. One of the principle of security is the
dissemination of regulations or directives to insure uniformity of
purpose, operation and continuous placement of responsibility.
(Corpuz & Delizo, 2011).
  CENTRE FOR THE PROTECTION OF
NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE (CPNI) 

- It is a government agency that

protects the United Kingdom’s
national security by providing
protective security advice. 
  PURPOSE OF PERSONNEL SECURITY 

• To identify security measures in proportion

to the risk
• To reduce the risk of employing personnel
likely to present a security concern
• To establish that applicants and contrac-
tors are who they claim to be 
• To close down opportunities for abuse of
the organization’s assets 
  PRE-EMPLOYMENT SCREENING
The pre-employment screening should
include checks on the following:
• Proof of identity and address 
• Details of education and employment 
• Criminal records check 
• Financial check
• Checking of at least two character
references 
Pre-employment Screening Policy Checklist (CPNI, 2011)

1. Make pre-employment screening an integral part of

the recruitment process.
2. Ensure that applicants are informed in writing that any
offer of employment will be subject to the satisfactory com-
pletion of pre-employment screening checks, whether the
individual has already been granted access to the site. 
3. Ensure that the screening processes are legally compli-
ant at all stages (including the wording of application
forms). 
4. Involve all the relevant departments in the organization,
and ensure they communicate and share data effectively. 

5. Identify the specific office responsible for the pre- employ-

ment
screening process.
Pre-employment Screening Policy Checklist (CPNI, 2011)

6. Incorporate specialist businesses into your strategy if

appropriate.
7. Ensure that the application form requests all relevant in-
formation, including consent for further checks, and out-
lines your screening policies.
8. Establish decision making guidelines for consistent and
transparent judgments about inform policies. 
9. Have a clear understanding of the thresholds for deny-
ing someone employment.
10. Be clear about how fake or forged documents will be dealt
with .
11. Collect data on the results of the pre-employment
screening process (e.g. incidence of false qualifications or
criminal record). 
 Application Form
- Using a standardized application form to
be completed by job applicants requires
them to provide all relevant information
and confirm its correctness with a
signature
- The form should include a provision that -
pre-employment screening will be carried
out.
 Identify Verification
- Verifying the applicant’s identity is a critical measures in
the screening process. In fact, other measures in the
screening process should only come second after the
applicant’s identity has been satisfactory proven.

Four main reasons why individuals use false identities:

 To avoid detection
 For dishonest financial gain
 To avoid financial liability
 To legally obtain genuine documents
 Two methods of verifying identity
1. Paper based approach
- involves requesting original documents such as those
that corroborate the applicant's full name, signature, date
of birth and full permanent address.

2. Electronic approach
- involves checking the applicant’s personal detail
against external databases.
 Qualifications and Employment Checks

- A qualification check involves the veri-

fication of information regarding edu-
cational or professional qualifications,
while an employment check involves
the verification of the applicant’s em-
ployment and position.
 MEDIA SEARCHES
- Media searches involves the evaluation of an individ-
ual based on their online reputation. It includes
searching for what they say or what others says about
them on internet.
- Media searches can also help verify
identity ,confirm ,or resolve concern about suspicious
behavior ,or establish how security aware the appli-
cant is.
 Ongoing Personnel Security during
Employment
• Personnel security is a system of policies and
procedures that manages the risk of staff or
contractors exploiting legitimate access to an
organization assets or premises for unautho-
rized purposes. It is important to distinguish be-
tween this and personal security, which seeks
to reduce the risks to the safety or well-being of
individual employees.
 Purpose of Ongoing Personnel
Security (CPNI, 2010)
• To minimize the likelihood of employees
becoming a security concern.
• To implement security measures in a way
that is proportionate to the risk.
• To reduce the risk of insider activity, pro-
tect the organizations assests and, where
necessary, carry out investigations to re-
solve suspicions or provide evidence for
disciplinary procedures.
 Importance of Ongoing Personnel
Security
- Insider activities are those that exploit an em-
ployee legitimate access to an organizations
assets for unauthorized purposes. This is a po-
tential threat for organizations that could have
possibly hired terrorist, intelligence services
agents, discontented employees, or journalists
and activists seeking to damage the organiza-
tions reputation.
 Security Training and Awareness
• Security training and awareness programs provide an
opportunity for old and new employees to gain neces-
sary skills to perform their responsibilities within the
organization’s security network.
• Security Training and Awareness, includes the orien-
tation for new employees or other activities,such as;
workshop, scenario-based, role- plays,
briefings, intranet or magazine articles, poster, meet-
ing, focus groups or quizzes.
 Addressing Behaviors of
Concern
Managers play a key role in addressing
negative behaviors and ensuring that security
measures are followed. Managers sometimes
fail to act on poor performance, and this could
worsen the problem because other employees
might become dissatisfied for compensating on
Their co-worker’s poor performance. Another
negative result is when employees assume
that poor performance is acceptable and follow
that example.
 Controlling Employee Access
Organizations usually use access controls as
physical security measures against outsiders.
Similar considerations should be used to
prevent or minimize the risk of individuals with
legitimate access engaging in insider activities.
 Screening for the Insider Treat
Insider attacks can cause significant damage
to an organizations. Big organizations might
rarely encounter threats of insider activity, but
they should nevertheless be prepared by
establishing an effective screening regime.
There is no clear pattern pattern that can help
detect insider threat because the personality,
motivation and behavior of insiders can be
extremely varied
 Exit Procedures
An employee who leaves an organization could
possibly have considerable knowledge about
its assets, operations, and security vulnera-
bilities. If the reason for the employee’s de-
parture is not amicable, he might maliciously
give sensitive information to the organiza-
tions competitor.
 The Exit Interview
By and large, the exit interview is done with
employees about to leave the company in
order to help identify problems contributing
to employee turnover.