Securing Human Resources Data from Cyber-attack is Crucial

Securing Human Resources Data

Business leaders are prioritizing securing HR data of their organizations amid the surging cyber-security concerns

The widespread lockdowns have forced businesses to rearrange their strategies, so that they may continue organizational functionalities. Under the circumstances, the HR teams operations have become a significant support that keeps the economy afloat and help business operations running smoothly.

The HR departments are working on a fine balance while fulfilling various needs of their employees in the new normal. Lately, some organizations are taking tentative initial steps to re-open and transitioning back to the workplace – and HR teams are gearing up to meet this challenge,. However, most organizations have preferred to operate remotely.

Navigating new ways of managing HR functionalities and data in this shift to remote and back to the office is complex – due to the rising cyber threats. Deploying safety measures and with data security in place, CISOs are assuring HR leaders through this process. The HR data stored by professionals are the simple payday that the cybercriminals are looking for.

Read More: The Changing Dynamics of HR and People-Management in a COVID-19 World

How important is Securing HR data

If the data stored by HR teams is compromised, it can do immense damage to both employers and the personal lives of employees –. For any organization, the HR data is one of the highest risk types of stored information. It contains not only necessary contractor details, employee demographics but also the social security numbers as well as medical information of all.

Unsurprisingly, a large portion of the HR professionals is also operating remotely like other teams – which indicates higher and more access levels spanning cloud, VPNs, and personal networks. Many federal and state laws and regulations govern this storage, transmission, and use of this high-value data. The sudden shift into a distributed workforce has increased data risks.

How to Secure HR Data

Employers need to ensure secure access management, and appropriate usage permissions. . Thus, a combination of secure logging and analytics software is a must-have to track usage. Many employers are therefore, deploying high tech tools that leverage AI and ML to review the process, and to increase data security.

Read More: Remote Working Norms to Persist Even After the COVID-19 Threat

It is true that not all security setup is fail-safe. Still, there should be enough safety protocols and measure implementation to significantly reduce the risk – especially in an unprecedented, evolving environment. A multi-layer security approach can combat cyber-attacks as compared to a single solution.

Clearly, organizations need to be more cautious – while it comes to employee well-being; otherwise, to stay stable and survive these trying times. Securing HR data needs to be a priority from both technical as well as an end-user perspective.