Market Mad House

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. Friedrich Nietzsche

The Death Spiral

The Danger from Employee Identity Theft

One of the biggest threats to your organization’s security is your employees’ ID cards, access cards, passwords, badges, and personal information. With this information, a clever crook can gain access to your network, your facilities, and possibly even your bank accounts.

Each identity badge, ID card, and password issued to an employee is a tool that a bad guy can use to get inside your organization. A crook could use an employee’s access card to get into your building for example. Once there, he could rifle through letters in the mail room, steal from employees’ desks, go through file cabinets, or even sit down at a computer and get into your database.

A criminal that is wearing an employee badge could walk up to your front door, and your receptionist or security guard might let him into the facility. Once he gets inside, the thief could wander all over the building for hours, and nobody would challenge him or question his presence, because he is wearing a badge.

Why Employee Identity Theft Should Scare You to Death

As you can see, employee identity theft is a major threat to your security, and it can happen anywhere at any time. One stolen badge, card, or password could cost a company hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For example, a burglar that breaks into one of your employees’ homes could get his hands on identity cards, access cards, or badges. A hacker that cracks into an employee’s personal computer or phone could steal passwords and pin numbers for your system.

This is why it is critical that organizations take advantage of services such as No Identity Theft. Such resources can help you identify possible sources of employee identity theft and offer tools with which to prevent it.

Criminals Want Your Employees’ Identities

There are two ways that criminals steal employees’ identities. The first is the old fashioned way: by swiping physical identification materials such as cards and badges.

The second is to steal the employee’s data and to create fake identification. A predator can take an employee’s name off of a company website or even a Facebook page and use it to create a fake ID card for example.

ID card printers are for sale online, and anybody with a credit card and a mailing address can order one. All the fraudster needs to do to impersonate your employee is to add his or her picture to the phony ID card.

What the Bad Guys Know

Making fake ID cards is the kind of tactic that most criminals are familiar with. Such tricks work because most people are unaware of them.

The bad guys already know these tricks, but your employees probably do not. No Identity Theft can provide you and your staff with the latest information about identity thieves and their tactics. It can also connect you to resources that can make your company more secure.

In today’s world, every organization, no matter how small, needs to take steps to prevent employee identity theft. Your employees’ identities are one of your organization’s most valuable assets, but they can also be one of its greatest liabilities if they fall into the wrong hands.