5 Tips To Prevent Identity Theft In The Workplace
Is your identity really safe at work?
Most people today engage in different online activities such as shopping, banking, and bill paying. All of these activities involve using your confidential personal and financial information online. Recent news has shed light on a fast-growing crime – identity theft. Hackers steal personal information such as your name, address or social security number, and they use it to gain access to your financial accounts or to commit fraud. Identity thieves can use the victim’s personal data to open a credit card account or take over the person’s bank account. The bottom line: Being vulnerable can cause significant financial damage. It can create emotional distress, impact the lives of families and even damage relationships.
Identity theft happens everywhere, not just at home or school but also in the workplace. During the job application and employment onboarding process, employees are usually asked for their personal information. An office or business in New York City that employs hundreds or thousands of people is a prime target for identity thieves. Most employers have privacy policies and procedures to protect an individual’s information against identity theft, however, it is also an employee’s responsibility to take necessary steps to prevent himself (or herself) from being a victim of identity theft.
Here are five ways offices and employees can prevent identity theft in the workplace:
- Conduct background checks on individuals who will be authorized to have access to personal information of employees. It is important to limit and control access to sensitive employee information.
- Develop policies that will address proper handling of sensitive information.
- Inform staff about the company’s privacy policy and procedures for them to understand the importance of protecting personal data.
- Store employees’ personal information in a secure location. As an additional security measure, you may equip your data storage room with door access control system. You may contact a trusted security company to install either a biometric or card access control system. Additionally, sensitive files stored on computers or storage drives should be password protected. Passwords should be changed regularly.
- Properly dispose documents that contain confidential information, especially any document that contains an employee’s social security number. This can be done by shredding the documents instead of just throwing them in the dumpsters.
Security awareness is essential in combating this fastest growing criminal activity. Total Security provides cyber security products and identity theft protection services to Long Island, NYC and entire New York and New Jersey area. Contact us today to learn more about our comprehensive and low-cost identity theft protection plan. Call our support staff at 516-775-2304 (New York location) or 201-594-7233 (New Jersey location).