CHAPTER 2, PART I

PHYSICAL SECURITY STANDARDS FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) RESTRICTED SPACE

1 BACKGROUND

The United States Department of Agriculture houses and processes information relating to the privacy of US citizens, payroll and financial

transactions, proprietary information and life/mission critical data. It is essential that this information be protected from the risk and magnitude of loss or harm that could result from inadvertent or deliberate disclosure, alteration or destruction. USDA must protect information resources through layered physical security, high logical data security and effective security procedures and administration. Successful IT security protection dictates the physical control of restricted space that contains major USDA computer and telecommunications resources. The purpose of this chapter is to define the physical security standards for all IT equipment/devices in this space.

Many USDA facilities house highly sensitive critical IT infrastructure components. As such, it is essential that every precaution be used to safeguard this information capability. Information technology infrastructures will be housed in IT Restricted Space that meets the requirements of the physical security standards outlined below.