Is Your Digital Data at Risk from Insiders?

Is Your Digital Data at Risk from Insiders?

Even with all the attention given to providing cyber security and preventing information and data theft, one key area is frequently overlooked: employees.

Business professionals agree that screening a potential employee before hiring him or her is crucial and much more important than how you let's say "organize the clip strip snack rack" in your store.

Despite this, the snack rack probably gets more attention than employees do once the initial investment is made.

## The Numbers

First Advantage conducted a survey showing that 60 percent of 337 business professionals feel that employee background screening was the most important of the security controls to protect digital data. 98 percent of those surveyed agreed that initially screening all new employees was important.

Despite these numbers, 61 percent told the survey that their company doesn't ever rescreen a current employee. In fact, out of the few companies that actually rescreen employees, only 13 percent do so yearly while 10 percent take this step every two years. In other words, there is a large gap between what professionals feel should be done and what is actually done in terms of employee screening.

## Just 1 Person Poses a Risk

This discrepancy involving screening and security risks is a particular problem. That is especially true when you consider that just a single employee with access to certain information and questionable morals or the right price could lead to a massive leak of data.

To make matters worse, just under half of those surveyed have plans for insider threats in their companies. This means that someone could easily instigate losses without anyone noticing.

## Third-Party Threats Are an Issue as Well

Just because digital data threats may come from unscreened employees, that doesn't mean they are the only threat. A related group is third parties that you do business with but don't work for your company. Even fewer companies have a plan to deal with these threats, but they do know exactly what should be in their "clip strip snack rack" at any given time.

## No Large Investment Needed

When it comes down to it, there is virtually no reason to avoid rescreening employees. You can do the process online and don't have to check as many areas as you do before hiring someone in the first place. In fact, the cost of rescreening will typically be covered by the reduction in your company's shrink rate.

As a bonus, it will give your customers more confidence when using your services since they know their data is safe.