Managing Security Threats When A Disgruntled Employee Quits Your Dallas Business
This may come as a surprise to the majority of the public in Dallas, but the greatest number of threats (as defined by CSOs, IT security specialists, and IT managers) are found within the confines of the organization itself. Yes, there are still hackers and other cybercriminals, and there are countless times when they succeed in their villainous actions and evade security measures, resulting in a breach.
These are the types of cyber threats that are likely to be highlighted on the front pages of Dallas newspapers and atop the latest breaking news on the web, but they only represent a small number of cybersecurity threats to an organization. While it may be difficult for business leaders to believe, the greatest threat to the overwhelming majority of companies comes from within. Whether the actions were unintentional or intentional, disgruntled employees have become the biggest threats to a company’s security. One of the alarming aspects is that these incidents are not decreasing, but are increasing gradually.
A percentage of all cyberattacks that Dallas businesses faces can be linked to the actions of an employee. Disgruntled employees often have access to sensitive, confidential, and even classified data, and they are a likely cause of the rising number of internal cyber threats. Disgruntled employees can copy confidential data to a data storage device or upload it to a third-party cloud service, and within no time, security measures are breached.
These disgruntled employees are typically trained and know the system well enough to evade its security measures. These employees are meticulous and are calculated with their intentions, often having planned these actions for weeks or months before abruptly quitting.
How Can You Identify a Disgruntled Employee?
A disgruntled employee typically displays several types of hazardous behavior, which requires you to be observant. Some of the types of behavior that you need to be aware of include:
- Quitting the job abruptly. An employee who suddenly leaves the company could wreak havoc for a variety of reasons.Â
- An employee who no longer likes his/her job. An employee who exhibits signs of not being satisfied with his or her job can potentially become an insider threat.
- Indicating discontent over an employee review. It is not unheard of for an employee who receives a poor review to become upset and become a danger to business operations.
- Expressing feels of unfair treatment. It is not uncommon for employees to feel as if other employees are being treated better and with more respect. An employee who feels he or she is not being treated fairly or feels disrespected can quickly become a real internal threat.
It is important to remain vigilant so you will be able to spot these behaviors and actions. If you are unable to spot these behaviors, the chances of a disgruntled employee wreaking havoc on your operations will increase.
Managing the Security Horror of Disgruntled Employees
Simply mitigating external cybersecurity threats is no longer enough when it comes to fighting cybercrime in today’s advanced and ever-evolving threat landscape. Internal threats can be as damaging as their external counterparts, but most businesses fail to appropriately maintain insider threats.
The human component of cybercrime is difficult to deal with because you will never know when an employee’s ”switch” will be flipped. A former star employee could very well become your business’s worst enemy.
A disgruntled employee who wants to disrupt your business operations can do so by doing the following:
- Permanently deleting critical and sensitive data
- Stealing and exposing sensitive data on the dark web
- Exfiltrating critical data before leaving your business to work for one of your biggest competitors
- Damaging equipment, systems, and/or applications
Categorizing systems and restricting some access can decrease the number of interferences and internal hacks. Also, making things just a little more difficult to access can be effective in deterring and hindering the disgruntled employee’s attempt at succeeding with the crime.
Creating a blacklist of sharing software and services that can be run on company devices can decrease the number of opportunities that a disgruntled employee can have to steal company data. Analytics can be used to track who has viewed files and directories, and analytics can be used to send alerts when file access and file transfers have taken place.
Security Policy + Data Backup & Recovery Equals Better Threat Protection
If your know the steps to take to secure your business operations, then you can reduce your risk of the potential damage a disgruntled employee could do to your company’s critical assets as he or she leaves. How do you build better threat protection against internal threats caused by a disgruntled employee?
- Identify your sensitive and confidential data
- Build a robust security policy
- Scan your applications and systems for viruses, spyware, ransomware, etc.
- Track the information your employees have access to and monitor systems, databases, and application access
- Make sure you know which employees need access to what information (remember that not everyone needs administrative or access privileges)
- Disable an employee’s access to critical systems, data, and applications as soon as he or she leaves
- Ensure everything is regularly backed up
If you have data and assets that are worth protection, you have data and assets that are worth a disgruntled employee attempting to use to his/her advantage. It is in your best interest to protect your company from the actions of disgruntled insiders.
Corptek Can Help You Defend Your Operations Against Disgruntled Insiders
Making improvements to IT security, implementing incident response planning, conducting security assessments, and creating a comprehensive strategy for internal threats should be of the highest importance. While implementing better security measures, such as unyielding access management, continuous risk management, and robust backup solutions will improve your chances of protecting your business operations from disgruntled employees. The actions you take will ensure your sensitive and confidential data is backed up and protected from the actions of a disgruntled employee.
Corptek will not only help you defend your business operations against insider threats but we can also help secure your data and digital assets. No matter how an employee leaves the company, it’s important for you to protect your operations. For companies who want to protect their IT ecosystem, Corptek is a clear choice. We have extensive experience securing business operations and IT environments and we offer protections to make sure your company remains safe. Contact us today and a member of our team will reach out to you.
