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Fast Growth and Much to Lose?
by Robert A. Goldfinger
When a financial institution helps its clients to protect themselves from identity theft, they also help to reduce their own back check losses. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States. A recent Federal Trade Commission study indicated that in 2002 there 9.9 million victims of identity theft with a total economic loss of $47.6 billion.
CEOs, CFOs and Human Resource Managers often ask financial institution risk specialists how a business can prevent or deter identity theft in the workplace. The workplace is a target rich environment for identity theft criminals to steal information or assume fake identities. Here are a few simple, yet often overlooked prevention tips that you and your human resources department could easily implement:
- Know whom you are hiring- do a comprehensive background investigation. Insure that temporary help agencies are supplying employees who have met selection standards.
- Safeguard employee personal information. Protect access to internal databases that contain information such as dates of birth, social security numbers and health insurance information.
- Applications for employment (hires and non-hires) need to be stored of in a secure manner or disposed of by shredding.
- Documents containing any person information should be shredded. Dumpster diving and garbage picking are a popular method used by identity thieves.
- Personal information about employees should not be given out without proper waiver or court order. Internal employee training programs should highlight the need to protect privacy in written or phone communications.
- Professional licenses and certifications of employees need to be protected from improper utilization by identity thieves.
- Entrances and exits should be monitored by security cameras in order to control access by workmen and other visitors.
- Employees should carry with them only those personal items that are necessary to conduct everyday business. Numerous charge cards, personal checkbooks and bills should be left securely at home.
- Items containing personal information should not be left in cars parked in corporate parking lots.
- US MAIL should be placed in official blue boxes as compared to unsecured internal trays marked for US MAIL.
- The IT department should develop rules for Internet usage, and if possible, put an electronic monitoring system in place.
- Post identity theft/fraud alerts (eBay scams, Nigerian money awards, too good to be true opportunities), on your institution's intranet.
If a company's employee becomes a victim of identity theft, he or she will certainly experience a disruption in his or her personal life, which may spill over into the workplace and affect job performance. Managers need to be sensitive to these employees' personal needs. A referral to employee assistance program services will not only be compassionate, but appreciated.
Business managers need to take an assessment of the practices and physical plan to insure that they are they are doing everything they can to prevent identity theft from occurring. It is difficult to measure the return on investment for conducting risk assessments and implementing prevention strategies. The economic loss to employees and business productivity can be immense when identity theft loss and victimization seeps into the workplace.
Robert A. Goldfinger is a retired Law Enforcement executive having been the commander of central investigations for a large urban police department. He is presently the Director of Risk Management for Coastal Federal Credit Union located in Raleigh, NC.
First published on BankersOnline.com 1/12/04.
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