April 23, 2008
These NewsBriefs are produced and delivered weekly by
Attainium to keep our friends and clients
current on topics relating to Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery and Crisis Management.
When you are considering the risks to your organization, don't forget the category of employee issues.
From lost productivity to stress to insider threats, your employees can be a significant source
of financial loss as well as the cause of serious threats to your business continuity.
The articles below bring to light some issues you might be wise to consider.
The ability to access and disseminate data quickly and easily is great from a productivity viewpoint,
but frightening from a security perspective.
(Item #1)
The human resource part of business recovery is a vital link between the employees
that produce the recovery and the plan that guides it.
(Item #2)
Stress in the workplace is costing American business $300 billion a year.
(Item #3)
When employees fire up their company-issued mobile devices at home or at the airport,
they often use the technology for both business and personal pursuits like blogging.
(Item #4)
Despite the continuous growth of malware and other threats, insiders still pose
a significant threat to enterprises.
(Item #5)
Statistics show employee lawsuits have risen along with stress levels among workers.
Find out how to minimize risk in this litigious environment.
(Item #6)
As always, we look forward to hearing about your concerns
with regards to business continuity. If you have a topic
you'd like to see covered, please email me at
bmellinger@attainium.net
Best Regards,
Bob Mellinger
President
Attainium Corp
Quote of the Week
"70% of electronic security breaches originate inside the firewall and
90% of those are users with elevated rights (systems administrators, etc.)."
- Matt Flynn's Identity Management Blog -
Articles
1. Hackers Are Not the Biggest Threat to Data: Employees Are
Employees must have access to proprietary information to perform their job responsibilities.
The problem is not the access, but what they can do with the information. The current attitude toward
electronic data is that we must be able to access it from anywhere we are working -- and we should be able
to share it with co-workers, business associates, vendors, etc., with the click of a mouse.
http://www.infosectoday.com/Articles/Data_Threat.htm
2. Organizing Human Resource Issues for Business Continuity
Part of the dilemma in planning for business continuity is the myriad of human issues
to be dealt with - the human resource policies and procedures that impact employees involved
in the response to disaster.
http://www.drj.com/drworld/content/w3_021.htm
3. Employee stress takes toll on company's bottom line
Workers under stress are less efficient and less healthy than more contented employees,
and that's bad for the bottom line. According to a poll conducted by the American Psychological Association,
two-thirds of American employees say work has a significant impact on their stress level,
and one in four has called in sick as a result of stress.
http://www.pe.com/business/local/stories/PE_Biz_D_office_stress29.677fe0.html
4. Blogging on corporate laptops is risky business
When an employee does personal blogging on a company machine and corporate email account,
blog databases are able to suck in a wealth of email data. Digital miscreants can then use sophisticated
data mining software to scan the blogs for proprietary information that may be sitting in some
of those stored messages.
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid14_gci1254538,00.html#
5. Five common insider threats and how to mitigate them
According to Gartner, more than 70% of unauthorized access to data is committed by
an organization's own employees. But there are steps you can take to protect against common
insider threats without breaking the bank.
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid14_gci1158172,00.html
6. Arming Against Employee Litigation
Minimizing the risk of employment litigation related to wrongful termination, discrimination,
sexual harassment, and so forth, then, starts with proper hiring, clarifying employer expectations,
establishing a solid awareness among managers of EEOC and other employment laws, and maintaining
detailed documentation when performance issues arise. Strong interpersonal skills, diplomacy,
and effective communication channels also go a long way in accomplishing these goals.
The idea is to prevent litigation long before conflicts escalate.
http://www.asaecenter.org/PublicationsResources/AMMagArticleDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=1587
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