A staggering 87% of employees take corporate information when they leave a company. How do you protect your organization from this? And what’s to blame for this information theft?
The Great Reshuffle could be affecting your organization more than you initially thought. As employees of all ages and levels leave their jobs despite marked pay increases, security has become more important than ever before. This, combined with the frequency of hybrid work, has made the theft of corporate information a common problem. With more and more employees being able to take their devices home, organizations need to be aware of and prepared to handle possible threats.
Five Types of Internal Threats
1. Compromised Accounts – The employee clicks an unauthorized link or the account is not properly locked down, resulting in stolen information.
2. Negligence – Employees unknowingly compromise the company security, possibly due to negligence or improper training
3. Malicious Intent – The employee’s intention is to cause harm. This can happen in the form of information theft or selling data.
4. Human Error (similar to negligence) – Careless employees accidentally send an email to the wrong person. IT sends information to the wrong person but have the correct intention.
5. IP Theft – IP theft involves taking ideas, inventions, or even creative secrets.
Things to Watch Out For
1. Security – The company’s security could have loopholes. Employees could be turning off machine security or not securing the proper documents.
2. Violation of Company Policies – If someone is violating other company policies, they could be an internal threat to the company.
3. Downloading Data – Employees downloading a lot of data, accessing data that doesn’t pertain to their job, or attempting to access data they do not need for their responsibilities.
4. Secrecy – If an employee is acting secretly or hiding information about what they’re working on. Working late or not in the presence of others.
Ways to Protect Your Company
1. Training – security training to help prevent fraud – can test internally by sending emails and ensuring employees do not click on unauthorized links.
2. Security prevention – examples include blocking unauthorized emails, warning from non-company emails, anti-virus software, locks on important data.
What will you do to protect your organization during the Great Reshuffle?