With the advent of the internet, laptops and trends toward work life balance, employees are more often working from home or offsite. This creates new problems with organizations keeping control of their confidential company data. New technologies make it quick and easy to transfer or copy data electronically. Recent surveys show that as many as 60% of employees take some sort of data when they leave an organization. This is regardless of how they left, whether being laid off, downsizing or just finding another position. This is alarming, particularly when employees jump ship and go to work for a competitor.
Organizations spend millions of dollars on monitoring software to keep an eye on where employees are going and what they are doing. But even with these advances in technology, employers need to be diligent at continually putting safeguards in place to help minimize electronic data theft.
So what are some things an organization can do?
- When employees leave an organization, they should be required to return all company computers and any related hardware. For example, some employees create their own back up systems of data that they work with on a regular basis. It should be understood and an expectation that any data that is kept offsite at an employees home will be returned to the organization.
- When employees submit their resignation letters, companies should monitor employee activities to watch for transferring data or emailing information.
- Employers should always do exit interviews with employees. In addition to gaining perspectives on the employee’s experience, employers should remind employees of confidentiality agreements and specifically ask about returning company property.
- Employers should remember to cancel employee email accounts and turn off access to company network and files when an employee leaves.
- Organizations should communicate on a regular basis the expectation that employees will not take electronic data. The more something is communicated, the more important the employee will understand it to be.
These are just a few things organizations can do to safeguard electronic data. There are federal and state laws that protect organizations from computer data tampering. But as with any other legal matter, it takes time and expense to pursue litigation. The best course of action is to stop it before it starts.
photo by: Ivan Walsh
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