Disgruntled Employees? Protect Your IT!

In an ideal world, everyone at your organization always puts the organization's best interests first. Unfortunately, we don't live in that ideal world. Some employees can abuse their IT privileges or even commit acts of sabotage involving your company's data and equipment – and the risk may remain even after (or especially after) you terminate them. Here are some tips from our Austin IT support experts on protecting your tech from disgruntled employees or ex-employees

Control your mobile devices. A BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy invites employees to steal company information via their own smartphones. Instead, issue mobile devices maintained and secured by your Austin IT support team, including modifications to block the downloading of data to external storage devices.

Adjust permissions. What degree of access do those iffy employees currently have to your organization's inner workings? If you have any reason to feel nervous about their ability to view specific types of data, then you need to downgrade their IT permissions.

Change passwords. Once that employee is on his way out, you need to know that his passwords won't let him back into your IT system. Changing passwords is the ultimate permission denial – assuming you don't use something simple like “123456” that practically anyone could use to gain access.

Beef up your security. A tech-savvy former employee may not need a password to hack into your IT system. Make sure you have a robust firewall, cloud encryption and other strong anti-malware safeguards in place to prevent destructive attacks. And don't neglect your physical security either. Pay attention to low-tech protective measures such as collecting keys and changing the locks to rooms containing expensive equipment.

Need safe, strong tech support in Austin? Contact Gravity Systems so we can help you secure your IT against the occasional “bad apple!”