Bar code security system

A security management system that utilizes bar codes to document inspections made by security officers at various areas being inspected. The system includes software, data scanners, data transmitters, a personal computer and noncopiable bar code labels. Noncopiable bar code labels are placed on security padlocks used to secure lock bar cabinets, on safes containing classified material and on secure area entrances and exits. When making the security rounds, the security officer will scan the bar code label on the padlock, safe or secure area entrance or exit. Later this information is processed by computer to generate a report showing the date, time and location of the inspection, and the identity of the inspecting officer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Companies working on projects that involve the use of classified 
information up to the secret level, normally store these materials in lock 
bar cabinets, safes and secure areas. When performing a routine security 
check, security officers would inspect the general area in which a locked 
cabinet was located and sign a sign-off sheet to show that a particular 
area had been inspected. 
The Defense Investigative Service (DIS) has now mandated physical security 
inspections of lock bar cabinets used to store classified material up to 
and including secret materials. To comply with these requirements, it is 
required that the security personnel document the time and date of the 
inspections as well as the identity of the inspecting officer. The new 
Industrial Security Manual (ISM) from DIS also mandates that physical 
inspection of all lock bar cabinets is required every four hours during 
non-working hours and while the cabinet was not in use by the custodian. 
Security policies may also require that all safes and secure areas are to 
be inspected concurrently with the classified lock bar cabinets on a 
similar schedule. It is now required that the time, date, location and 
identity of the inspecting officer be documented for each inspection. The 
inspection time for a three-story building of approximately 90,000 square 
feet using the new documentation requirements is approximately 11/2 hours. 
Therefore, there is a need for a more efficient system for inspecting lock 
bar cabinets, safes and secure areas while at the same time recording and 
preserving an accurate and reliable log of the inspections including time, 
date, inspecting officer, route, location, number of inspections and any 
incidents that occurred at a particular location. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The invention is a modification of the TISCOR Protrac system which is a 
Security Management System that utilizes bar codes to document the 
inspections made by security officers at various areas being inspected. 
The systems consist of Protrac Software, data scanners, data transmitters, 
a power supply, charges for the data scanners, an IBM PC or compatible 
computer and bar code labels. 
The Protrac system is used primarily to record and document tour 
information and uses the PC based software to formulate tamper proof 
reports suitable for DIS requirements. This system was improved by placing 
noncopiable bar code labels on each Model 8077AB Sargent/Greenleaf 
security padlock used to secure lock bar cabinets containing classified 
material. The same bar code labels were used for safes containing 
classified material, secure area entrances and exits and the badge of the 
security officer making the inspection. When the security officer prepares 
to go on an inspection round he checks that the data scanner has the 
correct time and date. The officer then makes sure that all data is 
cleared from the data scanner and he inserts his employee number as well 
as the route which he will be inspecting. He does this by scanning the bar 
code identifying his employee number and scanning the bar code for the 
route he will be taking. As the officer approaches each classified lock 
bar cabinet, the officer grabs the padlock and scans the bar code label 
from left to right. By grabbing the security padlock the officer insures 
that the padlock is indeed locked. The same procedure applies to safes and 
secure areas. 
After the inspection, the officer returns to the security computer and 
downloads the information into the PC. The PC will print a number of 
reports which gives specific information on time, date, location, the 
inspecting officer, any incidents that occurred and the number of scans 
made for each bar code label. If a particular lock has not been scanned 
then it will show up on the report and the officer knows exactly which 
lock was missed. Using this procedure, the security officer will have 
recorded all of the information necessary to meet the new security 
reporting requirements in the ISM and will have considerably reduced the 
amount of time required to make and record these inspections.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
FIG. 1 shows a model 8077AB Sargent/Greenleaf security padlock that is used 
to secure lock bar cabinets containing secret material and below. A 
noncopiable bar code label 10 is placed on the front of the padlock 12. 
The bar code label 10 is encoded with information identifying its exact 
location and the lock bar cabinet that it is securing. As each officer 
prepares to go on an inspection round he or she first prepares a data 
scanner for service. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the hardware used to 
prepare and implement the security management system. The bar code label 
44 is a noncopiable bar code label that can be used for any number of 
purposes related to the storage and inspection of classified information. 
The data scanner 46 is a stand alone unit that is not normally connected 
to any of the other hardware components. For example, dotted line 45 
pointed at the bar code label 44 is a dotted line indicating that the data 
scanner 46 reads information from the bar code label 44 but is not 
physically connected to the bar code label 44. Similarly, the dotted line 
45 pointing at the data transmitter 48 is representative of the fact that 
the data scanner can be physically connected to the data transmitter 48 
for the purpose of downloading information from the data scanner 46 
through the data transmitter 48 to the security computer 50. Once the data 
is downloaded from the data scanner 46 to the security computer 50, the 
data scanner 46 is physically disconnected from the data transmitter 48. 
Turning back to FIG. 1, the data scanner 46 is used to scan the information 
from the bar code label 10 on the padlock 12. Preparing the data scanner 
46 for service includes checking to see that the data scanner has the 
correct time and date. To prepare the data scanner 46 to verify that it 
contains the proper time and date, the security officer obtains the time 
and date test sheet shown in FIG. 4 and scans the bar codes from top to 
bottom. The first two bar codes 30 clear all previous inspection data from 
the data scanner. This bar code is scanned twice to make sure that all 
data is cleared. The next bar code 32 is scanned to prepare the data 
scanner to scan the next bar code 34 which identifies the program that 
will control the data scanner. Next, bar codes 36 and 38 are entered to 
simulate the entry of an employee I.D. and a route I.D. number. These bar 
codes are actually neutral and do not represent any particular employee or 
route number but are merely entered to fill up the data slot so that the 
time and date test can be completed. The next bar code 40 is then scanned 
to verify that the data scanner has been properly set up. The security 
officer then proceeds to the security computer 50 (FIG. 6) to verify that 
the time and date contained in the data scanner is the same as the time 
and date contained on the security computer. The security officer inserts 
the data scanner 46 into the data transmitter 48 and downloads the 
information to the computer 50. The security officer then reads a computer 
printout generated by the security computer that verifies that the time 
and date contained in the data scanner match the time and date contained 
in the security computer 50. This is an important step because on any 
given occasion a data scanner may not have been properly charged or may 
not be in proper working order. By verifying the correct time and date, 
the security officer is assured that the information obtained when making 
his security rounds will be useful and accurate so that the security 
officer will not have to recheck that route because the data he obtained 
was incorrect. 
Turning to FIG. 5, after the time and date in the data scanner 46 have been 
verified, the security officer will perform the following procedure. 
First, the officer will obtain the sheet of bar codes used to prepare the 
data scanner for a shift. Once again, he will use the bar codes 30 (FIG. 
5) to clear all data from the data scanner. This is done twice to insure 
that all data is cleared from the data scanner. Next, the security officer 
uses bar code 32 to prepare the data scanner to accept the program 
identification bar code 34. The security officer will then scan the bar 
code that identifies the security officer who will make the rounds. This 
bar code is attached to the security officer's badge. Next, the officer 
will scan one of the bar codes 42 each of which identifies a different 
security route. Once the appropriate route bar code has been scanned the 
officer can proceed to scan the bar codes on that route. 
As an officer approaches a classified lock bar cabinet, the officer grabs 
the sides of the security padlock 12 (FIG. 1) and scans the affixed bar 
code label 10 from left to right with data scanner 46. A beep will 
indicate that the scan was successful. By grabbing the security padlock 
the officer ensures that the padlock is indeed locked. If the padlock is 
not locked, a security violation has resulted which is charged to the 
person leaving the cabinet unlocked. The security officer can carry with 
him an incident sheet of bar codes that identifies particular security 
violations. For instance, if a particular lock is not secured, the 
security officer, after scanning the bar code on the lock, can scan the 
bar code corresponding to the code for "lock not secured". Similar 
security violations would include safe open, alarm defective, light bulb 
out, fire hazard, safety hazard, property damage, exterior door open, 
security violation, parking lot incident, theft of property, forced entry 
and bar code missing. Other types of incidents can be represented by bar 
codes that correspond to the particular security needs of a business. An 
example of an incident sheet is shown in FIG. 7 with the even numbers 52 
through 74 representing particular security violations that may be 
encountered by a security officer when making his or her rounds. 
The same procedure applies to safes and secure areas except that the 
officer also inspects the built-in, three-position, dial-type combination 
locks used to secure the safe or the security area entrance or exit door. 
FIG. 2 shows a safe 14 with a built-in three position dial type combination 
lock 18 and a noncopiable bar code label 16. 
In making his or her rounds, the officer would approach the safe 14 and 
check the safe handle 20 to make sure that the safe was secure. The 
officer would then scan the bar code label 16 with the data scanner 46. 
The data scanner would accurately record the information contained on the 
bar code label 16 and the officer would move onto the next area to be 
checked. 
With reference to FIG. 3, as an officer approaches a secure area 22, the 
officer would check the door handle 28 to make sure that the door was 
secure. The officer would then scan the information contained on the 
noncopiable bar code label 24. Again, if there was any particular problem 
with the safe referred to above or the secure area shown in FIG. 3 then 
the security officer could refer to his incident sheet of bar codes and 
record the problem with that safe or secure area. 
Upon completion of the inspection round, the officer returns to a security 
station and downloads the accumulated data to the security computer 50. 
The PC will now print a number of reports, all of which give specific 
information on time, date, location and number of scans made of each 
scanned bar code label as well as any incidents that were recorded. If any 
active bar code label is missed it will result in a negative scan allowing 
the officer to go back to the bar code label missed for subsequent 
scanning. 
The Protrac data base can be updated quickly as changes in bar code labels 
occur due to the changes to security padlocks, safes or doors. Once a week 
the accumulated data is transferred onto diskettes from the PC and 
archived for future reference or, if need be, inspection by the DIS or 
others. 
This system offers a number of advantages that increase the efficiency of a 
security officer making rounds. It also very accurately records 
information gathered during the making of the rounds and the bar code 
labels are versatile and can be placed on any surface, indoor as well as 
outdoors. 
This system also provides a way of accurately recording the time and date 
of the inspection, plus the name of the officer who inspected the 
classified lock bar cabinet, safe or secure area. Since each classified 
material custodian with a lock bar cabinet is issued a padlock, the serial 
number of which is recorded concurrently with the bar code label number 
and the custodian's name and location of the padlock, there can be no 
doubt in a subsequent investigation as to the status of any one cabinet. 
Although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been described above 
by way of example only, it will be understood by those skilled in the art 
that modifications may be made to the disclosed embodiment without 
departing from the scope of the invention which is defined by the appended 
claims.