3 Easy Ways to Protect Employee Data

In this era of data privacy, businesses often focus on protecting customer information at all costs. While important, they usually forget another key part of the privacy conversation: employees.

Employee data involves any data related to a worker’s identity. It can include basic information such as a worker’s name, birth date, and home address. Often, though, data also covers highly sensitive information.

From medical history to workplace incidents and salary, this data outlines a person’s relationship with their work. And with all the IoT devices around us, location data, recorded calls, and videos can also be part of this sensitive information.

While this data can help inform decision-making, it can leave complacent businesses vulnerable. Hackers can use this information to discover everything about a person - and their place of work. 

So, how can companies keep an employee’s personal and professional data safe? Let’s see.

Improving Employee Data Protection

Global privacy laws have made employee data protection a legal requirement. Laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) now compel businesses to offer employees the same rights and protections they give customers.

And yet, the truth is few businesses are focusing on employee data protection. Research from Deloitte found that 49 percent of employees admit they are unaware of the data collected. As such, they’re kept out of the loop of their vulnerability.

To make matters more difficult, it’s not enough to protect the employee data you have on file. You may now have to protect their activity, too. 

IoT devices like voice assistants and smartwatches keep intimate records of duties. Each one could potentially be the chink in an employee’s cyber defenses.

Below are three effective ways of improving employee data protection. Easy to put in place, each measure should help reduce the threat of a data breach.

Three Effective Methods

#1: Be Proactive

While data breaches may seem like they come out of the blue, leaked credentials often surface online and remain there for long periods. Unfortunately, businesses don’t realize this in time.

Being proactive is one of the best ways to protect your employees from harm. By searching for threats, you can catch and contain them quickly. This strategy minimizes damage and helps you patch vulnerabilities to thwart future attacks.

One effective way of doing this is using data breach detection. This tool helps check whether employee data appears on infostealer logs on the dark web. If it finds leaked employee usernames and passwords, you can reset affected accounts.

Best of all, data breach monitoring works in real-time, meaning you’ll be alerted to threats as soon as possible. The service can explain how and where the leak originated, helping you improve your overall security protocols.

#2: Create a Data Breach Response Plan

Businesses must have a robust data breach response plan in place. Only then will employees know what to do in a crisis. As the Federal Trade Commission explains, a response plan should include input from a team of experts.

Including employees from different departments will help streamline communication, leading to better outcomes.

That said, businesses must ensure they integrate cybersecurity tools into the plan. For example, breach detection monitoring should become a starting point of the plan. After all, this is how you will most likely identify cyber incidents.

After that, the plan should highlight the stakeholders responsible for making decisions. It should also define how affected employees involved in the breach are notified and anticipate what questions they may have.

#3: Provide Training

Research from 2023 found that 74 percent of data breaches involved a human element. It stands to reason that to improve employee cybersecurity, employees must receive proper training and support. If they can protect themselves online, they can protect business data, too.

Besides training, businesses should create an employee privacy policy. This document can educate staff on what data is collected and why. By doing this, employees are brought into the fold on why data protection is a serious priority. 

By recognizing how they are affected, employees may take a more proactive role in cybersecurity.

Safer Overall Business

Protecting employee data must now become a priority for businesses. Their data should enjoy the same protections and duty of care offered to customers. Not only is this a legal requirement, but it can also help reduce the chances of a data breach.

Thankfully, with the right tools and software, this shouldn’t be a big ask. Services like data breach detection tools can help proactively contain emerging leaks.

Similarly, providing education and training is vital to upskilling workers. They will become more competent and confident in their day-to-day work. They’ll also be able to navigate the internet and use IoT devices safely and securely.