It’s unfortunate but true: Employees who’ve been given a bad performance review or terminated often seek revenge via IT systems. They may try to delete data files, steal valuable customer lists or trade secrets, or simply wreak general havoc on your IT systems.
How can you ensure data safety and protect your firm against this kind of activity? The best way is the most obvious way, which is to lock down all important IT resources with strong authentication measures. By requiring the entry of complex logins and passwords that are unique to each employee, part-timer, or other business partner, a company can positively control who gets to see and do what in its IT systems.
But equally important, especially when it comes to protecting against disgruntled employees, is the ability to immediately shut down any particular login ID and password. This calls for centralized control of IT-related IDs.
Centralized authorization can be extended, too, so that varying levels of access can be set. Some companies, for example, determine access according to employees’ work roles, meaning that clerks and lower-level associates may be permitted to view selected databases and files but not edit or copy data from them. Managers and executives, meanwhile, are given freer rein.
Another important protection measure is to have every and any attempt to access IT resources monitored by the IT systems themselves. This works best, of course, if employees are informed of this surveillance beforehand. The downside, security experts agree, is that workers may get annoyed by too much emphasis on surveillance.
Just in case, and it goes without saying, your company should have all of its data securely backed up, preferably offsite.
Ultimately, no organization can thrive without a certain level of mutual trust among its workers. And it’s a delicate balance between that trust and respectful, well-implemented IT measures that will assure your firm of avoiding the worst-case scenarios. Net Plus Consulting, a technology firm experienced in all aspects of data safety, is ready to help your company to achieve that balance, before it’s too late.
Net Plus Consulting is a nationwide service provider. To get started, check out our website or contact us to arrange a free one hour consultation.