Utilities
NERC CIP-006 visitor control: the four fields your log must carry
CIP-006 is unusually specific for a security standard: it names the fields a visitor log must contain and the period you must keep it. If you operate a Physical Security Perimeter, this is effectively a records specification written by the regulator.
Most frameworks describe an outcome and leave the implementation to you. CIP-006 R2 does the opposite, which makes compliance easier to evidence and harder to fudge.
What R2 requires
R2.1: continuous escorted access
Visitors within a Physical Security Perimeter require continuous escorted access. Not signed in and pointed at a corridor: escorted, continuously, for the duration. This is a staffing and procedure question before it is a software one.
R2.2: the four fields
The log must record the date and time of the initial entry, the date and time of the last exit, the visitor's name, and the name of the individual point of contact responsible for that visitor. Note the fourth: not a department, not a host organisation, a named person who is accountable for that visitor being where they are.
R2.3: ninety days
Visitor logs are retained for at least ninety calendar days. Shorter than the retention many operators assume, and much shorter than the four years cannabis regulators demand, which is a reminder that retention is regime-specific rather than universal.
Where audits actually fail
- Exit times missing. Entry is captured because somebody is standing there. Exit is captured only if the process makes leaving as deliberate as arriving. A log full of open visits cannot evidence R2.2.
- Point of contact recorded as a department. "Ops" is not an individual. The standard says the name of the individual.
- Escort recorded nowhere. R2.1 is a real obligation and paper logs rarely capture who escorted whom.
- Retention by accident. Keeping everything forever is not compliance, it is the absence of a policy. Ninety days is a floor, and holding personal data far beyond it needs its own justification.
Where BeckonDesk fits
The visit record carries the CIP-006 R2.2 fields directly: visitor name, host name as the named point of contact, check-in timestamp and check-out timestamp. Retention is configurable per tenant, so ninety days can be set as policy and enforced automatically rather than remembered.
One thing it does not do today: BeckonDesk has no escort assignment field, so the R2.1 continuous escort duty is not tracked in the system. If you need escorts recorded against each visit, ask us about it before a trial rather than after.
Related reading
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