Did you know it’s not just cybercriminals that are to blame for data breaches? It could be your own employee – malicious or inadvertent. Could your company be the victim of a cybercrime that you’re not even aware of yet?

Imagine this scenario (because it really happened) an employee at a medical supply company downloaded a music app to her computer, left her download folder open and exposed the company’s patient data to a hacker. This company refused to pay – because the owner didn’t think he or the company was at fault, the hacker then reported the company to the FCC. It went downhill from there for the business owner who eventually closed his doors but continues to pay off legal fees and insurance claims against his company.

Could any of your employees be downloading innocent apps and leaving your company data vulnerable to attack? Are you sure?

How Can Your Company Be Damaged By Cybercrime?

It’s not just cybercriminals that cause damage to your company. It’s your staff, vendors or IT department.

What damage can an employee do to your company, its data and its reputation?

1. They use a personal device to access company files, client data and confidential patient records. If your company sent employees to work from home because of the coronavirus pandemic – were they using their personal devices? Were they using their own home internet access? Are they using a file sharing site like OneDrive or Dropbox to store and access data? If they are and if they don’t log off your data is at risk. This is an easy cybercrime to perpetrate.
2. Did you have an employee leave – whether he resigned or was fired? Once that happened, did your IT department immediately remove all that person’s access to company records? A study showed that many businesses experience data loss because of employee turnover and 87% of employees who leave will take your data with them. They will use that data to leverage themselves into another job with your competitor. Can you afford that?
3. A report by StatisticBrain showed that 75% of all employees have stolen, or will steal, from their employer. They could be stealing money, inventory, client lists and trade secrets. The most common way an employee steals is through wasted hours by online shopping and other online use of your company time and resources.
4. A disgruntled employee deletes ALL the company data she can get her hands on including emails AND company data from the drives she can access. If you haven’t performed data backups how will you recover from that? Many cybercrimes are caused by people you once trusted.
5. Vendor theft from those outside companies that have access to your data – payroll, human resources, accounting companies. These outside vendors have direct and complete access to highly confidential employee and client data. A disgruntled employee at one of the vendors or a cyberattack from cybercrime at one of the vendors leaves your data vulnerable and open to a cyberattack.

Don’t take a chance on your company data being compromised because of a cybercrime and because you didn’t have protocols in place to protect your company and its data. Talk with your IT department and make certain you are protected — better yet, brin gin an outside vendor to perform an audit of the company’s data protections.

DM us or schedule an appointment to talk with our President Seth Melendez. Protect your company’s most valuable asset – its data.

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