Data breach within an organization is a question of when rather than if. Organizational cyber theft can be prevented with proper policies and procedures. In most circumstances, new employees cause data breaches inadvertently by installing malware that gives hackers access to internal systems, carrying company laptops and losing them at home, or sending sensitive information to unauthorized emails.
Additionally, a new employee can share information from the former employer with the new employer against the policies of the company. As a result, the security of the shared data is easily compromised. Human resource has a key role in adequately educating new employees on data security awareness and policies that guide operations within the company. They should understand how to identify attempted data scams and how to prevent them.
Other than employee education, companies should conduct sufficient pre-hiring background checks on prospective employees to avoid hiring potential threats to the organization’s data. After hiring, new employees should be taken through oaths of confidentiality that they will sign to protect company and client information. Access to company strategic systems should be limited and closely monitored to prevent an accidental data breach. New employees are vulnerable to Social engineering, where former employees find a link to extract confidential information from the company. There should be guidelines that prevent the extraction of such information from company systems.
Employee exit is another point of a data security breach. Data fraud and intelligence theft often occur when an employee is about to leave the company for the purpose of selling to unauthorized individuals. In both large-scale and small-scale entities, the company should create divisions and departments in that no one individual should have total unrestricted control over the entire systems of a company.
All equipment issued by the company should be returned, and all confidential information relating to clients be deleted from personal gadgets before they walk outside the company. Access should be limited to office space such that one cannot access company information when they get out of it.
In efforts to reduce the threats, a company should employ identity software that disconnects one from digital platforms while they are out. It is the role of HR to closely watch personnel at risk, for example, their activities three months before they quit. These people can take intellectual property when leaving; hence need to monitor their digital habits. There exists security software that checks employee behavior without infringing on the right to privacy. In summary, a company may require a sophisticated software update when a sensitive member of the team quits averting a possible data security breach.