A Vault in the OZARKS

Nov 1, 2004 12:00 PM

Storage and maintenance of valuable documents and archived records is easy to take for granted. Digital storage is becoming so commonplace that little thought is given to the mountains of invaluable and confidential “hard copy” records that have accumulated over the years. In fact, storage and archiving for banks, insurance companies, government agencies, hospitals and private art collectors is just as important as any digital security measure.

A secure, state-of-the-art physical storage facility for these documents is built into a mountain in the countryside of Missouri — one of several archival facilities in existence across the country. These facilities tend to be huge, climate-controlled buildings.

But in Branson, Mo., Mother Nature and modern mining technology have provided the building that houses Ozark Mountain Underground Vault and Storage (OMUVS). Built into a mountain, the facility has 17- to 34-foot ceilings and seven million square feet of available storage. Temperature is controlled naturally with constant year-round temperatures of 65 degrees; humidity control is mechanically maintained at 70 percent in a particle-free environment, making it ideal for document storage.

Being above ground also means that there is no danger of flooding as is the case with an underground facility. There are no worries about fire as with a traditional building; and there is no threat of having irreplaceable documents destroyed by a tornado.

When this storage concept was still on the drawing board, president Gail Hinshaw recalls a prospective customer telling him that when he hears the tornado sirens go off, there are two things he worries about — his family and his business records.

The storage and retrieval process at OMUVS is built on an infrastructure of bar coding. As items are delivered for storage, a bar code label is attached, and the identifying number is entered into a database that contains archival information and other references as requested by the client.

The process allows a customer to go online and request that the appropriate containers be retrieved prior to his/her arrival, thus keeping their time spent at the facility to a minimum. OMUVS also has full logistical and transportation capabilities.

Securing the mountain

The facilities at Ozark Mountain Underground Vault and Storage needed to meet or exceed Department of Defense (DoD) and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) specifications that govern the storage of seized property. OMUVS turned to Across America Security, a dealer/installer owned and founded by J.R. Rosselit.

There are two distinct sections to OMUVS — “General Storage” and “Secure Record Media Storage.” From the moment one drives into the parking areas at OMUVS, he is being monitored by one of 17 CCTV cameras throughout the facility, recording to digital video recorders in the central control room.

All alarm conditions (400+ alarm points) and access control (16 doors) exception reports are being reported both to the control room within the facility, and to an off-site UL Central Monitoring Station for redundancy. Upon being allowed through the front door, visitors will find themselves in a mantrap until identity and the nature of their business have been confirmed.

Visitors are only allowed in the facility with escorts, and those without a pre-set appointment have to wait in the mantrap during the verification process. Visitors are then escorted through an access-controlled door into a “clean room,” where the requested records that have been retrieved from storage will be delivered.

At no time are customers allowed into the actual storage areas. At an entrance amounting to a vault door, employee access to the storage area is controlled by a fingerprint verification reader, the CBIO from AWID Inc., Monsey, N.Y. An employee's fingerprint template is written to the AWID CBio Wafer, a stick-on patch containing a 16K secure PicoPass (inside contactless) smart chip that stores the cardholder number and up to two fingerprint templates. The CBio Wafer is adhered to a graphics-quality 125 KHz proximity card from AWID, which allows the employee access at 16 other access doors using the AWID Sentinel-Prox readers. If the fingerprint on the presented card does not match the finger being presented, the individual is denied access.

The ability to combine proximity and fingerprint technology by using the CBio Wafer was vital to meeting OMUVS's plan for each employee to carry a single I.D. card without having to re-badge. These readers report back to the IDenticard Identipass access control system, which makes the logical decisions regarding access based on programmed security parameters and also maintains a comprehensive audit log of activity at the access-controlled doors.

Other security technologies being used include special door switches from Magnasphere Corp. which cannot be compromised and are tamper-proof; DVR technology from Global Technologies that is custom-built and configured for the client's application; off-site video transmission enabled by fiber-optic lines running into the facility; the liberal use of multiple sensing technologies and the alarm point monitoring redundancy mentioned above.

Future growth in the mountain

In addition to expanding secure storage at the facility, Hinshaw has future plans for the “underground above ground” facility. Due in no small part to the high-security features of the facility, OMUVS will soon introduce evidence storage facilities for local law enforcement agencies.

“Our expertise in secure storage methodologies, combined with the level of security engineered by Across America Security, makes our facility a viable and affordable evidence storage facility for law enforcement agencies,” Hinshaw says. Another plan calls for maintaining a “server farm” for companies wanting to outsource their digital data storage in addition to their hard copy records and archives.

FOR THE RECORD…

About the companies

For information, circle the Reader Service number (listed below) or visit securitysolutions.com

Across America Security	10
AWID Inc.	11
Global Technologies	12
IDenticard	13
Magnasphere Corp.	14

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