Identifying internal threats are critical to the overall health of a business. Businesses are potentially losing tens of thousands of dollars in revenue by not knowing how these common internal threats which negatively impact their organization and bottom line. Today we will share three common points of interest and what you as business owners/managers can do to mitigate risks.

For instance, when hiring employees, it is difficult to imagine the polished and well-presented individual you interviewed would ever steal or do something to harm your business. It sort of feel like betrayal doesn’t it? Shockingly, over 30% of business losses are due to internal employee theft. (reference)

Here’s Three Common Points of Interest Where Losses Happen Most

1. Point of Sale
2. Inventory
3. Business Data

To protect the integrity of your business and earnings, below we will go over how employees take advantage in each of these areas.

Point of Sales (POS)

The register, where transactions take place, is an obvious target for external threats but is also a huge area of focus for internal threats as well. The majority of businesses have practices in place to account for the balance that should be in the drawer at the end of an employees’ shift.  However, what is often missed is a manner of tracking what type of transactions they are processing.

A situation that is highly likely to occur in retail at the register is an item swap. For example, an employee may have a friend, family member, or partner come and check something out while they are working. While bagging items, the employee may scan a lower priced item while putting a higher priced item in the bag.

Another common scenario is a price change. Many POS systems allow a price override within a certain dollar amount without manager approval. Employees can adjust the price of items giving deep discounts impacting the revenue of the business.

These are just a few of the many different scenarios you need to have a plan for at the point of sale. Therefore, without a plan in place you are potentially allowing them to get away with thousands of your hard-earned dollars.  You don’t want to lose money do you?

Inventory

In retail businesses, inventory theft can account for a significant portion of losses sustained. For example, disgruntled employees or individuals facing financial hardships may have a higher likelihood of stealing. The most common items stolen from retail are electronics, toiletries and grocery items.

Under the bright lights in the store and on the shelves is not where the items disappear from inventory. They actually never make it into the building. Employees are aware of the shipment times, inventory, and even worse camera blind spots. Consequently, The very person you hired to track shipments could be adjusting the numbers to their benefit.

Armed with the knowledge of where theft occurs within your business, you can put systems in place that not only track your inventory and the people who manage it, but drastically reduce opportunities for theft, thus mitigating loses.

Business Data

One of the biggest ongoing and long-term internal threats to businesses is the theft of high-profile data or customer Personal Identifiable Information also known as P.I.I. A compromise of private sensitive data can be catastrophic to a business. This can be from lawsuits, fines, governmental penalties, or bad press.

This sensitive data includes:

Client addresses
Client phone numbers
Credit Card Numbers
Social Security Numbers
Bank Account Numbers
Transaction History

Valuable data downloaded from your servers or gathered from a stolen laptop, phone, or other device used to conduct business present considerable risks.

The wrong person with sinister motives inside of your business could also steal valuable intellectual property. Imagine your trade secrets, vendors, and sales scripts being compromised and sold to your direct competitors. That would suck wouldn’t it? So what should businesses do to mitigate these risks?

A comprehensive data protection plan is vital to a business. Moreover, the lack of a specific strategy will result in financial risk. Key security components involve limiting access to data, track who accesses it, and secure where it is stored. We operate in a global economy, powered by technology. Therefore, this underlying fact can contribute to your success or your demise as a business owner if you aren’t properly informed. But knowing isn’t enough, is it? You have to decide if your consumer information, bottom line, and business reputation is worth protecting. Trending online for the wrong reasons can cause a significant negative impact.

In Summary

Not all threats we face in business come from our competitors, customers, or client base. Unfortunately, many of them come from the very people we unlock the door for and allow into our world. Therefore, our intent is not to make you paranoid about the people you hire and work with. instead to make you aware of the threats that exists so you can plan accordingly. Identifying internal threats is a necessary and required security measure if you plan to stay in business.

With this information, we encourage you to sit down and make a plan that will allow you to track, recognize, and manage your employee’s activity for their benefit and your own. Above all, a comprehensive plan will strengthen your security posture and reduce the opportunity for employees to exploit preceived weaknesses.

To sum up, at Athena Protection Service, we help business owners recognize and eliminate blind spots related to internal threats. We have worked with companies from various industries and are confident we can help you. Therefore, our team will work with you to create a detailed and comprehensive plan that allows you to focus on your business and not worry about criminals taking what you worked hard to earn.

Schedule some time with us in by clicking the link below to get started identifying internal threats to your business. Or give us a call at 800-951-4866

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