Tailgating vs Piggybacking: How to Protect Your Business

It starts with a small act. Someone holds the door open for a stranger and just like that, your building’s security is compromised.

Tailgating and piggybacking aren’t harmless mistakes. They’re calculated moves. And they happen in places people trust the most such as front lobbies, service entrances, elevator bays. According to a 2023 ASIS International survey, 61% of organizations reported tailgating or piggybacking as their most common access control issue.

If you think door access systems alone are enough, think again.

This guide breaks it down:

• What tailgating and piggybacking really look like, and why they’re not the same thing
  
• How these attacks unfold, from common tricks to real-world consequences like theft, sabotage, and even violence
  
• Smart ways to stop them, including access control systems, surveillance strategies, and staff training that actually works

What is tailgating?

Tailgating is one of the oldest tricks in the physical security playbook. It’s when someone without access slips into a restricted area by closely following someone who does have access.

They don’t badge in. They don’t get screened. They just walk in behind someone else, usually unnoticed.

It’s easy to miss in the moment. Maybe the person looked like an employee. Maybe they were carrying packages. Maybe they just smiled and nodded like they belonged there. That’s exactly what makes tailgating effective; it feels harmless.

But the stakes? Far from harmless.

Tailgating isn’t just a mistake. It’s a social engineering attack. That means it’s built on manipulating human behavior, your staff’s instinct to be polite, helpful, or avoid confrontation.

Here’s what tailgating can look like:

• The “forgot my badge” excuse: Someone waits outside the entrance, dressed like a staff member or contractor, and asks to be let in. They say their ID is missing. Most people won’t question it.
  
• The delivery bluff: A person in a courier uniform walks up with boxes. They nod, act in a rush, and follow someone through a secure door. No questions asked.
  
• The elevator slide-in: A tailgater lingers near an elevator with carded access. As soon as a real employee badges in, they sneak into the cab, no badge needed.
  
• The friendly face: An ex-employee or someone pretending to be a new hire uses small talk to seem familiar, then follows the staff through internal doors.

Each of these methods bypasses access control tailgating protections, not through hacking, but through human behavior.

And once inside? They can access computers, drop rogue USBs, scout blind spots, or ride the elevator straight to floors meant to stay off-limits.

Tailgating doesn’t need a password. Just a second of hesitation, and a door left open.

How Does Tailgating Work?

Tailgating works because people let their guard down. It’s not about breaking locks or disabling alarms. It’s about slipping past security protocols by blending in socially, visually, or situationally.

Here’s how most tailgating incidents include:

• They watch and wait. Attackers pick their moment, usually during busy hours, shift changes, or deliveries.

• They build a cover. Some dress like maintenance crews or delivery drivers. Others pose as new hires, lost visitors, or just friendly faces.
  

• They follow closely. As soon as someone with access opens the door or taps a badge, they walk in right behind. Sometimes they ask for help (“Forgot my ID, mind holding it?”). Other times, they just slip in quietly.

And it doesn’t stop at physical access. If a tailgater reaches a device, they might:

• Install malware or USB keyloggers
• Copy login credentials from unlocked machines
• Access sensitive areas like server rooms or HR cabinets
  

The scary part? Most tailgaters don’t look suspicious. That’s the point. They rely on speed, confidence, and your staff’s instinct to trust people who “seem normal.”

What’s the Difference Between Tailgating and Piggybacking?

Tailgating and piggybacking both break physical security, but they don’t play out the same way.

One relies on invisibility. The other, on your staff letting their guard down.

Tailgating is all about slipping in without being seen. Picture someone hovering near a locked door. An employee badges in, the door swings open, and the tailgater follows just a step behind. No eye contact. No questions. Just confidence and timing. The employee often has no idea someone just entered behind them.

Piggybacking, though, is more personal. It’s when the person in front knows someone is behind them and opens the door anyway. Maybe the intruder says they forgot their badge. Maybe they’re wearing a uniform, holding coffee, or just seem familiar. Whether it’s politeness or pressure, the door gets held open and access is granted.

Here’s where things get interesting.

Tailgaters count on being ignored. Piggybackers count on being trusted.
One hides in plain sight. The other asks to be let in.

And both expose different types of weakness:

• Tailgating shows a lack of awareness.
  
• Piggybacking reveals a lapse in judgment.

You need different training to fix each. One teaches people to pay more attention. The other teaches them when to say no even when it feels awkward.

It’s not just about locked doors. It’s about whether your people know who should walk through them.

Why Tailgating Attacks Are Dangerous

A door left open can cost more than you think. Tailgating attacks might look harmless on the surface someone following someone else inside but the consequences hit hard, especially in places with sensitive data, expensive equipment, or vulnerable people.

Once inside, an intruder isn’t just in the building. They’re past your first line of defense. And what happens next can spiral fast.

Here’s what’s on the line:

• Vandalism: Someone gets in and decides to cause damage. Broken systems, trashed equipment, spray-painted walls. It’s not just costly, it disrupts operations and safety.
  
• Espionage: Tailgating isn’t always about what gets stolen immediately. It can be about what gets seen, copied, or planted. A quick scan of confidential reports. A hidden device plugged into your network. Espionage thrives in quiet, unmonitored access.
  
• Theft: Laptops left on desks. ID cards on lanyards. Inventory in storage rooms. If someone walks in unnoticed, they can walk out with whatever isn’t locked down.
  
• Workplace assault or violence: This is the worst-case scenario and it’s real. An intruder could be a disgruntled ex-employee, someone targeting a specific person, or just someone unstable. Once they’re inside, they have proximity. That changes everything.

Tailgating isn’t just a security issue. It’s a safety risk and the longer it goes unchecked, the more damage it can cause.

Common Tailgating and Piggybacking Methods

Tailgating and piggybacking don’t happen by chance. They follow patterns subtle behaviors, overlooked habits, and building design flaws that attackers know how to use.

Understanding these methods is the first step in preventing them.

Waiting near high-traffic entry points

Intruders often position themselves near busy doors like lobbies, employee entrances, service bays and blend in with foot traffic. The more people come and go, the easier it is to follow someone in unnoticed or ask to be let in.

Relying on social pressure

Piggybackers lean on social cues. They might say “I forgot my badge,” carry heavy items, or wear a friendly smile anything that makes the person in front hesitate to say no. It’s not technical. It’s psychological.

Mimicking legitimacy

Uniforms, clipboards, ID lanyards these visual cues lower suspicion. Whether posing as a vendor, contractor, or IT staff, attackers use appearance to bypass verification.

Following routine behaviors

Attackers observe patterns: when doors are propped open, when employees take smoke breaks, when deliveries arrive. Tailgating usually happens during these “unguarded” moments not because security is off, but because people are.

Targeting unsecured vertical movement

In multi-floor buildings, elevator access becomes an overlooked entry point. Tailgaters can enter through shared lobbies or loading docks and move freely if floors aren’t protected by access control.

These methods don’t require advanced tools. They rely on gaps in attention, policies, or awareness. And that’s exactly what we’ll cover next: how to close those gaps before they lead to something worse.

How to Prevent Tailgating and Piggybacking

Security systems don’t fail because they’re weak they fail because people assume they’re enough.

Tailgating and piggybacking aren’t tech problems. They’re behavior problems. And stopping them requires aligning three things: your people, your policies, and your building infrastructure.

1. Fix building flow before fixing tech

If your main entrance allows two people to walk through side by side, you're already exposed. Security starts with how your space is designed.

• Use optical turnstiles, sliding gates, or speed lanes to limit passage to one person per credential.
• Avoid shared entrances across departments or tenants without proper credential zones.
• For elevators, apply floor-level access controls, unauthorized users shouldn’t be able to go anywhere once inside the building.

2. Treat badge access as more than a swipe

It’s not about just “having” a badge. It’s about making every badge action traceable and intentional.

• Enforce strict credential discipline: No badge sharing, no “badging in” for someone else.
• Make access auditable: Use systems that log every door event and flag multiple entries on a single scan.
• Add multi-factor authentication for high-risk areas such as biometrics, mobile credentials, or rotating QR codes.

3. Build a culture where security is everyone's job

Tailgating happens when people feel awkward about speaking up. Fix that culture.

• Train staff to say: “Hey, I’ll need to see your badge too.” Make that normal, not confrontational.
• Use internal campaigns to reinforce: “No badge, no entry, no exceptions.”
• Run real-world drills where someone attempts to tailgate. Debrief. Repeat.
• Make it clear that reporting is safety, not snitching.

4. Don’t just install cameras, connect them

Surveillance should work with your access control system, not separately from it.

• Use cameras with AI video analytics that detect tailgating behavior: two bodies on one badge scan, motion without access.
• Set rules like: If a door opens and no badge is scanned, trigger an alert.
• Let your team respond remotely: review footage, trigger a lockdown, or send a message through on-site intercoms.

5. Automate the visitor layer

A paper sign-in sheet won’t stop a piggybacker.

• Use digital visitor management that ties each guest to a host, logs their visit time, and restricts movement.
• Visitors should get temporary credentials that expire automatically no free roaming, no re-entry without approval.
• Block shared or duplicated QR codes, especially for elevator access or high-security areas.

6. Regularly pressure-test your system

What worked six months ago might not work now. Threats evolve. People get comfortable.

• Schedule security audits with your facilities and IT team every quarter.
• Simulate tailgating during high-traffic times and log who stops it and who doesn’t.
• Keep access policies dynamic: If roles change, so should permissions.

Tailgating and piggybacking are preventable but only if prevention becomes a daily habit, not a one-time fix. Don’t just control access. Question who’s walking through it, every single time.

Role of Access Control Systems in Prevention

At the heart of every tailgating or piggybacking breach is a simple breakdown: the system lets someone through who wasn’t supposed to be there either because it couldn’t tell, or no one challenged it.

Modern access control systems aren’t just about opening doors. They’re about making entry intentional, trackable, and visible in real-time.

That’s where systems like Coram’s Access Control come in, designed to handle exactly these kinds of edge cases.

Here’s how Coram helps prevent both: 

One credential. One person. No exceptions.

Coram’s access readers are built to detect when multiple people enter on a single scan. Whether it's a tailgater slipping in behind or a piggybacker being let in by a colleague, the system knows something’s off and flags it.

Smart integration with elevators and floor access

Unlike basic access systems, Coram extends protection beyond the lobby. It restricts vertical movement so even if someone sneaks in at ground level, they can't reach secured floors or rooms without valid permissions.

Think server rooms, executive suites, or high-risk zones all access controlled, all logged.

Real-time alerts and visual verification

Coram pairs access events with AI-enabled surveillance, so when a door opens, the system doesn’t just record it; it verifies if the right person entered.

If motion is detected but no credential was scanned, it sends a real-time alert to your security dashboard or mobile device. That gives you time to act, not just review footage later.

Temporary visitor credentials with expiration

Piggybacking often starts with someone “just dropping something off.” Coram handles this layer too with temporary QR codes or mobile passes that expire once used, preventing guests from re-entering or roaming unescorted.

All access events logged and audited

Every scan, denial, anomaly, and tailgating attempt is recorded and stored. That’s critical not just for investigations, but also for compliance audits, internal reviews, or policy updates.

Tailgating and piggybacking don’t start with broken locks, they start with assumptions.
Coram’s system replaces assumptions with data.

So every door, elevator, and access point becomes more than just a barrier; it becomes an active checkpoint.

If You Can’t Track It, You Can’t Stop It

Tailgating and piggybacking don’t need complex tools, they rely on quiet moments and human habits. You’ve seen how they work. 

Now here’s how to shut them down:

• Spot where habits create risk. Most breaches happen when someone holds a door, props one open, or assumes the person behind them belongs.
  
• Train teams to act, not hesitate. A simple pause or question can stop an intruder. But only if employees know that yes, it’s their job to speak up.
  
• Don’t rely on logs alone. Passive systems record what went wrong. Smart systems alert you before things go sideways and help prevent repeat mistakes.
  
• Secure movement beyond the door. It’s not enough to lock entrances. Restrict floor access, limit re-entry, and monitor how people move inside the building.

If your current access control setup can’t show you who entered, where they went, or whether they belonged, it’s time for a system that can. Coram gives you the visibility, control, and automation to stop tailgating before it happens.