24 Dec The Three Major problems of Business Security
The internal security threats, which are most common to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can be divided into three main groups: data breaches, corporate fraud, and labor discipline issues.
In 2019, SearchInform launched the information security outsourcing service and started helping small and medium-sized businesses withstand information security (IS) threats. We provide software on the subscription model and outsource IS analyst, who takes on the tasks of an onboard information security officer.
Specialists from SearchInform have gathered statistics around risks and incidents that customers face most often. These include information security threats, risks of corporate fraud and other potential incidents, related to the human factor: sabotage, idleness, theft, and kickbacks.
Data Leaks
Often, employees and executives of small and medium-sized companies believe that their organizations lack valuable information that someone would want to leak. However, this is a misbelief. According to our statistics, attempts of data leaks were detected in 91% of companies that turned to us for help. The most frequent types of data leaked are customer databases and technical and accounting information.
The reasons for leaks are both malicious actions and accidental employee mistakes. A common problem is when employees steal data during their resignation. Employees copy materials just in case or deliberately to use them lately at the new workplace. If an employee brings client databases, market research, and other information to the new employer, it poses significant risks to the former employer’s business.
Therefore, any seemingly innocuous attempts to copy data to a flash drive, cloud, or messenger should be examined to make sure, whether they are harmless.
Corporate fraud
The second group of the most common information security incidents is corporate fraud. 86% of SMEs have detected fraud attempts, and 76% of them have revealed attempts to forge documents.
Unfortunately, when a company employs more than 30-50 people, it is already difficult for executives and line managers to control the situation. Therefore, the risk of incidents related to economic security increases many times over.
Employee performance evaluation and discipline problems
The third type of incidents is not related only to security itself, but also to work discipline. According to our statistics, about 25% of employees are underloaded and spend time on irrelevant activities. At the same time, overloaded employees burn out due to the disproportionate distribution of tasks.
In addition, monitoring employee activity is critical to identifying “at-risk” employees within the team.
Find out more about the major problems facing Small Media Enterprises.