“What keeps you up at night?” When top-level executives of most successful US-based companies are asked this question, the answer is invariably centered around the wholeness, soundness, and performance of the business; around the business integrity of the company. Modern criminalistics practices and technologies can safeguard the integrity of your Seattle business.
While cyber hacking is an ever-present threat, its only one thin band in the wide spectrum of threats that can befall any company. Threats may come in the form of:
Fraud, embezzlement, diversion
Employee raiding (enticement to gain intellectual property by reverse engineering)
Extortion, coercion, blackmail
Elicitation (gaining proprietary information via subterfuge and implicitly)
Solicitation (gaining proprietary information via recruitment of confederate internal ‘moles’)
Conflict of interest (co-opting internal help to break of non-compete and non-disclosure agreements
Stealing intellectual property such as formulas, databases, algorithms, customer lists and/or budget plans using various types of espionage techniques
Due to the slowing global economy and the rising friction between national trading partners competing in the global marketplace, the frequency and severity of attacks is ramping up. Whether copying entire segments of your business to replace you in the marketplace, or attacking your reputation and brand to pull your company down, attackers are working to take unfair advantage.
A Look at Attack Vectors
Attackers are:
Purposeful – attacking you to achieve a goal
Powerful – whether a company, state-owned enterprise, or agent of a foreign nation, attackers are often well financed with a clear mandate to ruin you
Partially Inside – attacks are almost always made with the help of internal management or staff
Relentless – Almost never attacking just once, but maintaining a steady campaign until the demise of your company or division is achieved
Not deterred by conventional legal remedies or punishments used by most US based firms when confronted with such a situation
Full Criminalistics and Private Security Contracting Solution
Having helped other companies that have been attacked, we know the methods and procedures of engagement used by modern attackers. With a complete risk assessment and deployment of measures to ensure your business continuity, we can help you stop attackers before any damage is done. If you suspect or are troubled by certain things you’re seeing in your business, let’s talk. Premier Risk Solutions knows this terrain very well and uses the very latest in criminalistics to determine criminal profiles and provide real-world solutions.
Fully Applied Criminalistics for Industries in Greater Seattle & Select Cities Around the World
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Here are the Top 5 areas that businesses (employers) should be concerned about with the increase in working-from-home.
1. Breaches of Confidentiality & Proprietary Information
This can be either through an intentional or unintentional means. Intentional: Certain nation-states have spies that have infiltrated employers/companies through legitimate avenues of employment (either direct employment or via a staffing agency). These actors are present to attempt to steal trade secrets (more often than not) to cause economic espionage. This practice has been occurring for years, it is not new, and the FBI estimates that American businesses lose hundreds of billions of dollars a year from trade secret theft. A nosy visitor to one’s residence could also exacerbate this issue if computer screens are left open & unlocked and/or the Wi-Fi utilized is unsecured. Any printed or written documents left out in the open or in an unsecured area are also susceptible.
Unintentional: With sensitive business conversations occurring in the home instead of the office or other off-site locations, the employee’s partner and/or children, household staff, or other transient visitors could inadvertently eavesdrop on a conversation they were not meant to. The information could be mistakenly shared with someone outside of the household in casual conversation and be utilized by that third party for unintended consequences (insider trading, gray market sales, etc).
What to do? Keep work data contained to work computers (do not share devices with anyone else). Ensure employees or contingent staff are utilizing secured Wi-Fi connections at all times; consider supplying a private (personal) hotspot as well as enhancing any level of encryption services that may normally be offered. Have a “clean desk” policy that extends to the work environment at home. Ensure sensitive or confidential documents are shredded properly and not left in regular recycle pickup bins; consider scheduling a private contractor (like Iron Mountain for instance) for weekly pickup for company key personnel.
2. Email & Text Messaging Scams
Phishing: Most of us have received those emails that appear to be from a reputable partner or company we do business with that are veiled (masked) as that entity but they are NOT. They are actually from a bad actor who is seeking your personal identifying information (username, password, or other similar data) and requesting you to take an action often associated with clicking on a link or other document they are sharing in the email. Once you click on that link or open the document they are providing, a virus of some sort is typically installed on your device for their monitoring or tracking of data input (keystrokes) or obtaining copies of what’s on your hard drive.
What to do? The best and easiest way we’ve found to validate or verify the authenticity of communication in email format is to open the header of the email so you can view the email address of the sender. Click on that email address to open it further and it is normally from another sender (they do not match). Delete the email under such circumstances without clicking or opening anything. If you are suspicious of a text message received, contact the known representative of the supposed sending company/entity separately and apart from that communication received (do nothing with the communication until you can verify its authenticity with the actual entity). If you cannot verify its authenticity, delete the text message without clicking on the link provided.
3. Locking Your Doors & Windows
This may sound simple enough but outside of major urban areas there are households that keep doors unlocked (we’ve visited with a couple of them!) whether it be their residence or their personal vehicles. This is the proverbial “low hanging fruit”.
What to do? Be sure to always secure the home and vehicles to keep out prowlers! Roll up windows in cars. For residences that are at ground-level, be sure to secure windows overnight for at least the main/first floor. Encourage employees and contingent staff to do so with gentle reminders as part of an outreach program, company newsletter, company intranet site, or similar.
4. Keeping Staff Feeling Safe
The OSHA General Duty Clause extends the care for employees by the business to when they are on business time, regardless of the physical location of the individual. For example, in the work-from-home environment, if you are on a business call and you slip and fall OSHA has indicated that is a worker’s compensation issue. However, in the same scenario, if you trip over your dog in that same hallway it’s not (unclear as to the exact distinction why one is covered and the other is not but most likely because the dog would most oftentimes not be in the standard workplace). Additionally, society has a certain percentage of its population that participates in cyberbullying on a variety of media platforms. Businesses will need to assist those employees who may be subject to cyberbullying to help them feel supported as well as take steps towards ending it.
What to do? Enact clear policies that have employee buy-in (engage employee representation when developing or enhancing policies). Ensure your company has contracts (or master service agreements) in place with the proper professional resources available on-call for support when it’s needed or to act as a force multiplier to your own internal business support mechanisms.
5. Safety at Home
Following along the lines from the example provided in #4 above where a slip & fall occurs in the home on business time, often providing education and awareness training to staff can help prevent even the smallest of accidents from occurring. Whether it be something as simple as picking up toys left from the kids playing during the daytime to covering stabilizing handrails or enhancing lighting to the exterior to act as a deterrent to the criminal element there is a myriad of such items that can be addressed to help aid the cause.
What to do? Host a “brown bag lunch” speaker series with a professional to allow employees the opportunity to gain more awareness of the issues that each of us can at times be blind to. Doing so also allows the employees to ask questions that they may otherwise not have the opportunity to do or know who to ask.
When you think about a company being able to ensure a safe workplace, the immediate thought typically goes to physical security. However, in these times, there is just as much of an emphasis on emotional security. As an employer it can be tough to navigate. That’s why we sat down with behavioral psychologist, Dr. Michael Corcoran, to talk about adapting to a new level of employee expectations.
There is now more than ever a need for employees to feel heard. They want the assurance that their voice matters and that the company they work for has the same level of commitment to their values. It is especially true in a time of political movements where political conversations are happening more often and in the workplace. Here are a few tips to help a workplace stay safe.
Right now, like many employees out there, we are working from home. While it may seem like being at home is about the safest spot possible, that’s not necessarily true. We sat down with our friend and PRS consultant, Dr. Michael Corcoran. He is a behavioral psychologist and has many years of experience in dealing with volatile situations.
In our series, “Strong, Safe & True”, we are looking to arms companies and leaders with the knowledge of how to identify a potential problem and what to do about it. It has never been more important as we are all facing new realities and environments forced on us by Covid-19. We have seen statistics about increases in both mental health issues and domestic violence during the pandemic. That can exponentially affect employees working from home. In this video session, we talk about the warning signs employers should be looking for. The goal is to help support employees so there isn’t a potential security threat.
Dr. Corcoran says there are a few tell-tale signs with employees. They include low self-esteem, changes in behavior, takes the job too seriously, and has few outside interests and hobbies. Click on the 12-minute video below to learn more details! PRS is happy to help, even if it’s just answering questions. Feel free to reach out at natasha@premierrisksolutions.com.
Al Robinette, President of CareerPath Consulting & Development
Michael Delamere, President of Premier Risk Solutions (Moderator/Host)
Our experts cover:
Why this topic is most important today
What it is (and isn’t)
Its types, barriers to empathy, signs of empathy, as well as its role in conflict resolution and relationship development
It’s Real World Applications
Tips and Strategies
It’s Long-Term Benefits and how you can further develop your empathic skills for the workplace
Learn these identifiable traits and valuable experiences of our panelists as they share what they have learned over the years. The content portion is about 1 hour in duration, with about a 15min Q&A dialogue near the end of the video playback for your reference. Click here to watch the video.
For some additional reference material provided, click hereto review 31 Empathetic Statements For When You Don’t Know What To Say.
