What is the biggest security threat your business faces? Break-ins and burglaries? Cybercrime? Or something else entirely?
Well, for many organisations, the biggest risk lies within its own workforce. After all, members of staff often have unrivalled access to internal information and are thought of as an asset rather than a danger. This is in spite of due diligence such as in-depth interviews and background checks.
So, what can you do to prevent security breaches from the inside?
Identify trustworthy employees
In almost every aspect of business, trust is imperative. From making deals with suppliers and vendors to selling customers a legitimate product or service, trust can have a direct impact on a company’s prosperity and profitability.
But the same can be said for security. If you’re able to establish a circle of trust between a small group of reliable and dependable employees, you’ll be able to keep things like alarm codes and computer passwords protected against.
Regularly change passwords and codes
This might seem like an arduous and annoying activity, but regularly changing any important passwords and codes will undoubtedly bolster internal security. Any unlawful employees wanting to access your premises after hours or trying to gain access to confidential data on your computer systems won’t be able to do so.
Speak to the people in charge of your building as well as any IT personnel to make sure changes happen every six months. They’ll either be able to make changes automatically or provide reminders when it’s time to do so.
Consider using different passwords and codes for different people
Another way of protecting your company’s most important assets from internal threats is to provide different passwords and codes for different people. This is a foolproof way of knowing exactly who gained access to the building or logged into a computer and when.
Therefore, if you’re ever the victim of a security breach, you can look at your records and see which member of staff was responsible. The only problem is if the perpetrator managed to steal or gain access to an employee’s password or code without their consent. But in most cases, it will be easy to resolve this issue.
Remember to stop privileges for former employees
Employees come and go all the time for a variety of different reasons. But regardless of whether it was the individual’s choice or not, you will need to stop privileges for former employees with absolutely no exceptions. This will include things like returning their access cards for the building and closing down email accounts.
Failure to do so will leave your business wide open to any number of security issues. Measures like changing codes and passwords regularly will help mitigate this threat, but you never know what other access or information previous members of staff may have.
If you follow the aforementioned advice but still believe your business is at risk from internal threats, be sure to contact Access Facilities Management for expert advice and a tailor-made plan of action.
