What flaw might allow your safe to be cracked?

Guardian Safes Ltd said the sheer strength and sophistication of modern safes had made traditional safe-breaking a thing of the past - with only low-grade lightweight products purchased through DIY outlets or high street stores still vulnerable to attack.

However, even with a high quality safe, thieves could still potentially gain access to an organisation's cash or vital documents, said Guardian's Mike Palmer.

"Regardless of whether your business uses a safe costing £30 or £10,000, if staff are careless with the keys or give away the combination you could still suffer a loss," he told us.

People problem

When better quality safes were used, most losses occurred as a result of staff corruption or "careless custodianship", according to Mike.

"Keys left unattended during the day can be taken, duplicated and replaced without anyone realising, while combination codes often remain unchanged for months, even years, until they become widely known or are deliberately or unwittingly divulged to a third party.

"Safe keys should never remain on the premises after working hours or when the premises are left unattended," he said. "Placing safe keys in a locked cabinet or desk drawer simply reduces the security of the safe to that of the cabinet or desk drawer."

He added that each additional duplicate key that was cut, degraded the security of the safe "by a substantial factor."

Audit trail

Mike recommended that the number of safe keys be kept to an "absolute minimum" – seldom more than two. In addition, if a safe key was ever lost or misplaced, a safe engineer should be called immediately to change the lock and provide new keys.

"Combination codes should be changed frequently, at least every 6 months," he said. "Telephone numbers, birthdays and other obvious codes should be avoided and should never be written in diaries or notebooks.

"If there is a need for several people to have access to the safe, a secure deposit facility allows cash to be secured without the need to open it. If multiple custodianship is unavoidable, a good quality electronic digital lock with multiple user codes provides a convenient solution.

"These locks also provide a full audit trail, registering the date and time of every entry and the code used to gain access. As employees move to other responsibilities or leave the company, their code can be made void."

Guardian Safes Ltd is Norwich Union's 'preferred supplier' of safes and security cabinets - meaning policyholders can receive up to a 25% discount off its products. For further information contact Guardian Safes Ltd on 0800 252225 or email sales@guardiansafes.co.uk.