Comments on: 5 Ways Employees Steal Data

By: Richard Andrews

Richard Andrews — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 06:03:59 +0000

In a big company, trust is an issue. Small and medium enterprises rely on the “trust” system simply because it worked on them. The case is different with multinational corporations, where bureaucracy is the life of the game. Multi-level departments are hard to deal with.

This article would have more impact if it also included case studies or real-life scenarios of employees stealing company data and what the company did something about it. I’ve read several cases about this online and most caught employees are bought to court and filed with criminal charges.

By: @MakeYourMove

@MakeYourMove — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:15:37 +0000

Jhos all your statements here are valid but they don’t apply to all companies or organizations. Remember that not all businesses have the same process of hiring and employing individuals. This is a case to case basis.

For instance, hiring someone to work for a big corporation (such as Google, IBM, or Walmart) involves a lot of steps – preliminary interview, secondary interview, final interview, exam, background check, hiring, orientation, probationary, contractual, then regularization.

On the other hand, SMEs are different. Because they’re not that big, their hiring method tends to be so simple. Usually, they skip some processes. And most of time, they will hire someone they or someone from the company knows.

By: Carter Rubens

Carter Rubens — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 10:58:46 +0000

Hi Jhos,

You are so right to do all this! Prevention is really better than cure. While you can never be sure somebody won’t be tempted to steal data, when you do background checks and have a binding contract, you do minimize the risks. Honestly, I think that most insider jobs are due to poor staffing practices and to hiring unreliable people.

By: Jhos Kent

Jhos Kent — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:52:53 +0000

As the HR Manager of a multinational company here in Houston, I always see to it that all incoming employees are throughly background-checked, even if they’re a friend of a friend or someone close to the organization. Before signing the contract, all new employees are required to read and understand all statements – they’re obligated to ask questions afterwards. This is because our contract has some interpolations that prohibit workers to divulge information and data to others. Think of it as a “non-disclosure agreement (NDA)” on steroids.

Also, if someone resigns (or was fired / terminated), that employee will not be allowed to work in a similar or competitor company. This way, no information or previous knowledge will be applied to his or her new job. Prevention is better than the cure. Being proactive always wins.

By: Tommy King

Tommy King — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:03:30 +0000

Definitely a lot to consider as far as ways in which your data and of course your physical property can be stolen. Security measures are improving both internally and externally as most major police forces are ramping up their cybercrimes divisions. Obviously the best phone call to the police is the one you never have to make, so setting up internal security policies and following them to the letter is ideal.