The next time you are firing an employee for their low performance or doing it for any other reason, please make sure that the data they possess has been handover to you perfectly, i.e. scientifically.
Otherwise, they could get involved with threat actors and target your organization with a sophisticated cyber attack that can shut down your organization on a permanent note.
Yes, what you’ve read is right! According to a study carried out by Unit 42, a business subsidiary of Palo Alto Networks, most of the cyber-attacks on organizations usually emerged from Insider Threats.
Usually, disgruntled employees, those who lost key position in a company because of recession, COVID-19 shut downs and usual layoffs for reasons started contacting cyber criminals and were found supporting them in destroying data of their past company, accessing it and stealing it fraudulently and selling that data to cover losses.
In coming days, researchers predict that such attacks arising from ex-employees may rise due to declining economic conditions all over the globe, mainly because of a rise in inflation and a surge in prices of essential commodities.
“Currently cybercrime has emerged into an easy business to make money as it costs low to launch cyber attacks with a guarantee of high returns,” says Wendi Whitmore, SVP and Head of Unit 42- Palo Alto Networks.
Patching vulnerabilities, restricting data access to employees if/when not required, following a data security protocol when an employee is leaving the organization and last, but not the least, taking care of them and understanding their needs can help organizations avoid cyber attack embarrassments because of insider threats.
No matter how good we stay with employees, only the money speaks. So, giving a pay hike to them- based on their performance, keeping a tab of their birthdays and allowing them to celebrate with office colleagues, understanding their work environment needs might also help in making employees happy!
But is it possible in reality?
