A secure electronic equipment rack with horizontal side panels on which components are mounted vertically. The side panels of the rack are shorter than the depth of components to be mounted, thus allowing space to be saved. The rack can include tamper resistance by adding baffling of ventilation areas, for example in both top and bottom vent patterns, and can be designed to be assembled in an overlapping fashion which allows no exposed hardware with the last piece to be assembled being the first to be removed in sequence.