The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has published a guideline document with recommendations for a robust and usable approach for the physical protection of infrastructures against potential terrorist attacks. It addresses the needs of security and law enforcement officials, building/site owners, venue organizers, state organizations, engineers and other stakeholders that are in charge of securing facilities and critical infrastructures against the terrorist threat.

The guideline provides a methodology for securing buildings against intruders, terrorists and other physical threats that try to intrude or gain access to a vulnerable asset. The focus is on the introduction of concepts that are applicable to the design of building security and aim in protecting people and property by enforcing a security perimeter. It illustrates a detailed analytical procedure for identifying the weaknesses of potential terrorist targets and for assessing the relevant risk for different terrorist tactics. It provides advice on the introduction of protection measures against both external and internal explosions and on minimizing the likelihood for the development of a progressive collapse mechanism. It proposes specialized perimeter physical protection measures which can successfully restrict unauthorised vehicle and intruder access, supplemented by the employment of modern digital technologies, such as video surveillance, smart sensors and video analytics. A chapter also sheds light to key issues and possibilities that are provided by the proliferation of new digital technologies. The guideline also addresses the threat posed from the malicious use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems and calls for a holistic building security scheme.

The guideline is free available here: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC121582