This One Person Can Sink Your Company It ’ s Not Just Cybercriminals Who Hack Into Networks And Steal Data BY RUSSELL QUINN
Most business owners erroneously think cybercrime is limited to hackers based in China or Russia , but the evidence is overwhelming that disgruntled employees , both of your company and your vendors , can cause significant losses due to their knowledge of your organization and access to your data and systems . What damage can they do ?
THEY LEAVE WITH YOUR COMPANY ’ S FILES , CLIENT DATA , AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION STORED ON PERSONAL DEVICES
They could also retain access to cloud applications — such as social media sites and file-sharing sites ( Dropbox or OneDrive , for example )— that your IT department doesn ’ t know about or forgets to change the password to .
In fact , according to an in-depth study conducted by Osterman Research , 69 % of businesses experience data loss due to employee turnover and 87 % of employees who leave take data with them . What do they do with that information ? Sell it to competitors , become a competitor , or retain it to use at their next job .
FUNDS , INVENTORY , TRADE SECRETS , CLIENT LISTS , AND HOURS STOLEN
There are dozens of sneaky ways employees steal , and it ’ s happening a lot more than businesses care to admit . According to the website StatisticBrain , 75 % of all employees have stolen from their employers at some point . From stealing inventory to check and credit card fraud , your hard-earned money can easily be stolen over time in small amounts that you never catch .
HERE ’ S THE MOST COMMON WAY THEY STEAL among a long list of non-work-related activities . Of course , you are paying them for a 40-hour week , but you might only be getting half of that . Then they complain about being “ overwhelmed ” and “ overworked .” They tell you , “ You need to hire more people !” so you do . All of this is a giant suck on profits if you allow it . Further , if your IT company is not monitoring what employees do and limiting what sites they can visit , they could do things that put you in legal jeopardy , like downloading illegal music and video files , visiting adult content websites , gaming and gambling — all of these sites fall under high risk for viruses and phishing scams .
THEY DELETE EVERYTHING . A COMMON SCENARIO
An employee is fired or quits because they are unhappy with how they are being treated — but before they leave , they permanently delete all of their e-mails and any critical files they can get their hands on . If you don ’ t have that data backed up , you lose it all . Even if you sue them and win , the legal costs , time wasted on the lawsuit and on recovering the data , not to mention the aggravation and distraction of dealing with it all are much greater costs than what you might collect in damages if you win the lawsuit .
Do you really think this can ’ t happen to you ?
Think again . You have to be proactive in protecting your organization .
Russell Quinn is Founder & CEO of Quinn Technology Solutions . They are based in Houston Metro Area and to find out more about what they do and how they could help you , please visit Quinn-Tech . com .
They waste hours of time on your dime to do personal errands , shop , play games , check social media feeds , gamble , read the news ,
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