General Security

How Much Does A Card Access System Cost? The cost of a card access system depends on a variety of important details. We're going to walk you through all that will influence this cost. First, let's look at the best way to think about the price of a card access system. A crucial metric: Cost Per Door.  Cost Per Door: When speaking about the price of a card access system, it is useful to talk about the average cost per door. Each project can vary significantly in size, and thus in the overall price. This Metric helps you to decide whether or not you are being quoted fairly. To calculate the cost per door is quite simple. We take the total price you have been quoted for the

Maglocks Vs Electric Strikes: A Matter of Public Safety All modern access control systems rely on doors being locked and unlocked electronically. The two most common devices used to do this are magnetic locks (Maglocks) and electric strikes. Unfortunately, these two methods are often confused or incorrectly believed to be interchangeable. In Toronto, it's not uncommon for companies to mistakenly recommend maglocks based on a lack of information. In reality, maglocks should only be used in rare cases for very specific applications. This is not just based on our opinion; it's also a matter of public safety, and the law!  We've put together this brief guide on the differences between electric strikes and maglocks to help prevent you from unintentionally creating a life-risking safety hazard, and from being

Card Access Control 101 Card Access Systems are the simplest and most effective way to secure entrances to rooms and buildings. In this article we will cover all the basics of card access systems including:  What they are & why they are necessary over more traditional methods of securing doors How a card access system works, including different components and how they interact as a complete system It is important to note that card access encompasses a variety of related technologies including: key cards, proximity cards, swipe cards, badges and even fobs.  At Square, we offer all of these choices based on what best fits your individual needs.  For now though, all of these technologies are similar enough to fall under the larger umbrella term of card access.

Elevator Access Control: Everything You Need To Know For high-rise buildings, such as condos and office towers, elevators are the primary pathway used to travel throughout the building. This makes them extremely important in preventing unwanted guests from accessing sensitive areas. A well-secured elevator will prevent undesired travel across floors of the building. Connecting a fob access system to your elevators is the most effective and secure way to control the movement of unwanted guests in your building. This allows you to control who has access to which (if any) floors, in a similar way that you would control a door. Despite this, elevator security is often a complicated topic for building owners and managers as it requires involvement from two trades: your elevator service company and a

Do You Have Control Over Access To Your Condo Building? If you're using regular access fobs, you likely don't, security experts warn. That's because malicious parties may be perfecting the process of duplicating security key fobs - for a price. CBC Toronto has covered the rise of this threat recently, as stores offering cheap fob duplication with little to no verification have popped up on major corners throughout the city. According to the article: "CBC Toronto producers Mike Smee and Nicole Brockbank were both able to get duplicates of fobs they borrowed from legal condo owners without providing any identification or proof they were the actual owners or residents." While this service is not illegal, it is clear that if the ability to duplicate key fobs and other

Access Credentials: Options and Trends Access control credentials are the item or input that a person must provide to gain access to a specific area (door, elevator, building, etc.). There are a wide variety of credentials and methods that can be used. This article will briefly summarize the main options while also laying out the potential pros, cons, and best uses for each case. For clarity, we will split these methods into four umbrella groups. 1. Something You Have: These are physical objects that you carry and present to the reader to open the doors. As the most common form of access control credentials, there are many options, including: Fobs and Cards: These are by far the two most common methods of access control. They contain individual chips