5 Most Vulnerable Areas Within the Office

There are many employees and employers who see the office space as almost a safe-haven for their documentation and information and for good reason, everyone working there chose to be there, so why would they ever do something to risk losing the job they chose to have? There are many reasons why employees would do such a thing to their employers, but we are not here for the why, we are here to tell you about the where; where are the most vulnerable areas within the workspace, and how can we change that?

So, in no particular order, here are the 5 most vulnerable areas within the office:

Printers

The problem with printers is that paper is frequently left lying around at printing stations and copy rooms are typically unsecured, meaning anyone can access these documents at any time.

The solution to this is to simply use printing security codes and whenever printing confidential documents, do so either at your desk or within your personal office.

Non-Secure recycling and waste bins

The main issue we see with these is the decision of what documents are sensitive and what documents are not, the issue being each employee will have differing opinions on which is which.

The solution for this is to implement a shred all policy where ALL paper documents are shredded, regardless of whether they contain confidential information or not.

Messy Desks

While messy desks are a major inconvenience and not nice to look at, they are also a major contributor to insider fraud and stolen confidential documents due to them being misplaced or lost in all the chaos of paper lying around.

An easy solution to this is to implement a clean desk policy across your company to ensure sensitive documents are kept out of sight and out of reach from any unauthorized access.

IT Storage Devices

These devices contain a lot of data that can easily be accessed by the wrong people, paired with the fact that many people aren't aware of how to properly destroy and dispose of IT storage equipment this is certainly one area that companies and employees must learn about fast.

One way to combat this is to begin using a sign-out system so that you have detailed records and are aware of who last used which device. Also, learn about how to securely destroy and dispose of the device once it reaches its end of life.

Cars, Homes, and Hotels

While none of these are areas within an office, these are the 3 most common areas that see sensitive and confidential documents go missing due to them being taken out of the office to be worked on during out-of-office hours.

The obvious solution to this is to only take out documents that are absolutely necessary and to securely dispose of those documents once finished.
 
The office contains many vulnerable areas that need attending to sooner rather than later, but by following the basic, and easy to implement solutions mentioned you can greatly reduce your vulnerability as well as reduce the risk of falling victim to fraud and data breaches.