How monitoring employee Computer and Internet access helps protect you from cyber threats

We all have heard the comment from CEO’s “Our employees are our greatest asset” and while that may be true it also reminds us that, for a multitude of reasons, employees also pose the greatest risk to a company.

Employees – The Risk Factor

Employees have access to information that is often critical to the success of a company, such as client lists, trade secrets, business strategies, and process management protocols that provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

The risk is compounded by the nearly endless opportunities available for employees who are so inclined to access and syndicate this information irresponsibly or maliciously via email, social media, chat clients, peer-to-peer streaming etc.

This is a very real and tangible threat. In fact it seems as though not a month goes by without a new story cropping up regarding the setbacks suffered by some major corporation due to data breaches, hacking and other forms of cyber crime. We cover these events here on the blog regularly, with the latest case being the alleged insider theft of Mercedes’ Formula 1 engineering secrets by a rogue employee.

How Can You Protect Your Advantage?

Realistically the only way to gain a reasonable degree of security while avoiding restrictions that paralyze the business is via actively monitoring employees computer usage.

Monitoring employee access on company computers and accounts is an acceptable practice in all the jurisdictions we’re aware of, as long as employees are made aware that monitoring is in place.

Here are a few key steps and practices you should take in order to further reduce your risks:

Educate

Maintain a regular process of educating your teams regarding the hazards of cyber crime, and how to avoid common pitfalls such as malware, phishing etc.

Control Access

Wherever possible limit access to data to as few individuals as possible.

Implement a policy of regularly reviewing and updating access privileges. This is normally a joint responsibility of HR and IT staff – Be sure to consider who’s looking out for them…

Monitor Employee Computer and Web Access

Deploy an employee monitoring solution that tracks their computer and Internet activities. As we’ve reported here before – For the vast majority of cases the knowledge that computer activity is monitored and traceable to the individual responsible is more than enough to deter anyone from illicit activity.

Monitoring also means that you’re organization is immediately aware of attempts at access from external threats as well as compromised computers and accounts. In a reality where as of 2016 most companies take no less than six months to identify an existing breach, this is a huge advantage in itself.

Automate Processes and Allow for Self monitoring

Following up on our previous point – Once you’re confident your monitoring solutions are actively in place, take it a step forward by automating all you can. This is a critical component of the overall response because it ensures it’s sustainability over time.

Most professional monitoring tools allow for automation out of the box. The best solutions on the market include features such as personal weekly reports for every employee – These have the added advantage of involving the team in the responsibility for data integrity in the organization.

What are your thoughts on employee monitoring in the workplace? Let us know in the comments section below!