The successful application of monitoring policies for employees is especially important for companies promoting the remote workplace environment.
The remote workplace is becoming more of a norm in today’s business environment. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced many organizations to quickly transition to remote work on at least a temporary basis, teleworking was becoming increasingly more common for employees at companies of all sizes. The remote workplace, however, also presents unique challenges relating to the protection of company data and intellectual property. Monitoring employee behavior is a tricky subject to wade through, but ultimately its successful application is a core strategy towards mitigating insider risk in a remote workplace environment. Here’s a general guide on how your organization should approach it.
What Needs to Be Measured?
Every program needs to start with the question “what is it that we need to measure?” Monitoring employees entails collecting data, so having some idea on what data you need to gather is going to influence the tools that you need to utilize. You may choose to focus on one or several aspects – employee productivity, access, behavior, and more can all be made measurable and the information gained from monitoring these things can be turned into actionable strategies for your company and its insider risk management team.
Who Needs to Be Monitored?
The initial thought is that you should monitor all employees within the remote workplace structure, but it may not be necessary to do this. Most organizations don’t monitor every employee – they identify employees whose roles or job tasks present the most risk to the organization as a whole. This will vary depending on your priorities – for companies looking to shore up their defenses against an insider data breach, for example, monitoring employees with access to critical documents and other data will be critical.
Establishing Baselines
Knowing what constitutes “normal” behavior is key because it allows your team to identify when behaviors are not normal. As a rule of thumb, generating accurate baselines for remote work should take around 30-60 days. You can glean useful information from what is generated out of one week’s worth of work, but keep in mind that this report will have a higher margin of error.
Formulating Your Response
The final step is determining your team’s response to a potential development. Consider all potential scenarios as different events may warrant more or less severe action. Remember the objective of your monitoring program – it is there to measure data and warn your team before a potentially disastrous event occurs. A response plan ensures that your team will be able to act quickly when certain parameters are met.
Contact ITMG to Develop Strategies and Protocols Designed to Help Your Company Mitigate Your Insider Risk
ITMG is an industry leader in helping organizations throughout the United States strengthen their insider risk management programs and secure sensitive data and intellectual property. Our team of bona fide experts has the real-world experience necessary to plan out and create holistic security solutions tailored to the special needs and risks in your industry. Contact ITMG today to learn more about how we can help! You can also visit our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages for more updates and insights into the world of insider risk management.