It’s Harsh, But Employees Need To Be Watched

Whenever and individual imagines security intrusion, they think of the suspicious, cloaked, interloper with sophisticated devices, bypassing alarms, motion detectors, and locked doors on their way to accessing sensitive data. No one thinks of the neatly dressed, shirt and tie, trusted employee to steal from or embezzle their employer for hundreds of thousands of dollars, proprietary patents, and other vital, secret information. The reasons for the theft are varied. Sometimes it is revenge fueled, other times it is financial. But it does happen with enough frequency that it needs to be addressed. With the advent of computers and computer access, the theft can take place from any location, either on site or remotely. Lest you believe it is a certain demographic, such as males only, or a certain part of the world, it is greater than that. Male, female, any industry, and any social class, salary range, and intelligence level from any country has their share of culprits. Identity theft from hospitals and health care industries, private business sectors losing as much as half a billion in intellectual property theft in a loss, banks losing financials and accounts, even the federal government is not immune to the theft that occurs.

The recent economy downturn only feeds the lure of theft for financial gains and returns. Suddenly the risk of getting caught isn’t as frightful as the rewards of getting away with the crime. Especially when someone else is paying huge returns on the insider theft of intellectual information. The lack of security measures only opens up the doors of opportunity. How easy is it for employees to commit identity theft, fraud or steal intellectual information? They have the passwords, the access, they know the layout, they are aware of the lay of the land. They even know your habits, and they have your trust. The fox is already in the hen house, waiting for the best opening to take advantage of your kindness, your faith and belief in them, and use any available method to abscond with your assets.

Employers can take preventive methods, including the monitoring of software applications, the types of data being accessed, and the dates and times of the access. Training is also a necessity, especially if you retain one of your professionals as a certified CISSP information security expert. CISSP training is a very comprehensive way to obtain a wide range of knowledge in the area of security. K Alliance is an excellent source of training in this field, growing in demand. CISSP certification training and eventual certification has a global recognition, setting itself as the standard of security excellence.

Holding a concern towards hackers, malware and other spyware and phishing schemes clearly is not the only threat to monitor. Anyone with access to an organization’s network falls under the purview of potential internal threats. Many cases have also discovered the reality of employees working in tandem with other internal staff or external partners, such as family members. Yes, it breeds of constantly monitoring and asking questions, but the consequences are destructive and far reaching. One example is a company going out of business due to the nefarious actions of an employee. Not only did the business suffer, the other employees lost their place of work.

In the time period of 1993 to 1994, Ellery Systems, which was an information system and engineering service located in Boulder, Colorado, suffered a theft from one of their trusted employees who fit the bill of a hard worker, friendly, dependable, and performing above the call of his responsibilities. The employee, with access to intellectual, proprietary information, managed to steal two and a half megabytes of data in order to sell it to a rival business entity. This instance was instrumental in the creation of the federal Economic Espionage Act of 1996.

If a business fails to shore up their security in every area, including operational security, it is only a matter of time before an internal breach either occurs, or is discovered long after the fact.

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