Companies have come to Corra Group in the past years where their secret information and trade secrets were seriously compromised.  It has caused them grievous harm when someone they hired as an employee stole guarded proprietary information and sold it off to domestic and foreign corporations.   In one case the victimized company was the leader in a certain industrial product.   Now it faces competition from interlopers using its own formulas.

The automotive industry is no strange to industrial espionage.  There have been stories over the recent years of employees being caught stealing proprietary information on the new battery and solar technologies.  Those automotive makers developing electronic cars are prime targets for corporate espionage.   While background checks, may help filter suspicious employee candidates who appear to have worked for related industries or competitors, employers must realize there is always a first time for a worker to take a bribe.  And this does not account for security breaches and cyber invasions.

According to an article in i Motor Times, here are but a few listed incidents of industrial espionage in the automotive industry, “In particular, auto giants including GM, Ford and Toyota have endured stolen intellectual property more than most.

Last month, an IT contractor for Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. was accused of hacking into the company’s database, taking a old of extremely sensitive trade secrets.

What’s more, GM and Ford were victims of theft from their own employees as well when internal information found its way to foreign competitiors.

Expressing the severity of the rising threat and the challenging conditions, U.S. Deputy Attorney General James Cole said during a Michigan keynote, “A well-placed rogue employee can capture a company’s highly proteted crown jewels, things on which profits and jobs depend on.”

Highlighting a rather high-profile incident of espionage, Assistant U.S. attorney Cathleen Corken brought attention to a case regarding a Ford employee that has stolen thousands of secrets in order to secure a job with another competitor.”

Prevention of industrial espionage requires diligence and perception.   Often, your suspicious about someone’s motives may be all too true.  The thing is to get on it early.   Higher experts in the field to set up necessary security precautions.  And be sure to run extensive background checks on everyone you hire.

According to Security Director News….”Penn State University has implemented a new policy that requires current employees in “sensitive” areas, as well as all future final job candidates and third-party employees, to undergo criminal background checks.

The policy change comes in the wake of Jerry Sandusky’s recent conviction on charges that he sexually abused several children during his 30-year career as Penn State’s assistant football coach.”

The background checking policy will apply to all new job applicants and all current employees deemed to be in sensitive or critical positions who have access to different areas where serious security breaches may occur. Those who have access, keys, to different buildings or have access to controlled substances are some of those current employees who will be subjected to background checks.

Now, if negative information is returned through employment screening procedures, it’s imperative that officials must act upon it accordingly.   So we don’t see another Jerry Sandusky incident.

Threats plaguing small business  can include your basic hackers to the most confusing and disruptive information about brand monitoring and diverted funds.  As I noted, small businesses are prone to the same weaknesses and vulnerabilities as larger enterprises.    However, because they are smaller, and have a more limited scope and focus, they are flexible and can adjust quickly.

Claudiu Popa of The Globe and Mail has posted an article listing certain security tips for small businesses.  There are ten in all and well worth reviewing.  Here is the link to the article.

And don’t forget to conduct background checks on your job applicants and key personnel.  Many security breaches come from inside your workplace and are driven by revenge, greed, or the need for money, and that deeply set human need to see if one can get away from something.  So background checks should be an important part of your employment screening program.

If the charges are valid, then there is no doubt Google did the right thing by firing its employee.   Because I must say when I read that anyone is trying to obtain personal information related to minors, then the first thing that crosses my mind is a pedophile in search of another victim.  I may be right; I may be wrong, but as the co-owner of a background checking service we are not entirely unfamiliar with employees or job applicants who populate the sexual offenders registry in all fifty states.    Not a foreign concept at all.  In fact, I would believe that for most people who read about such alleged charges one’s attempt to engage in improprieties with minors is up among the first things that crosses their minds as well.

Do we often see background checks where the final report for pre-employment screening reveals criminal records along with notation that the job applicant is a not-so-proud member of the sexual offenders registry?  Truthfully, not too often.   When we do see criminal records that relate to sexual offenses, other than prostitution, then overwhelmingly the employment candidate is a male.  In the rare times it is a female, as far as the charges and convictions, believe me…you don’t want to know.   Except of course if you are considering that person for employment.

I am told by clients that sex offenders are generally toxic to the workplace.   Once it is learned that the new employee is a sex offender, quite often office morale will diminish.   Male and female employees alike tend to express violent attitudes toward the sexual offenders.  In the case of some males, they would often prefer to express themselves in a much more physical factor.  Whether you approve or not, this is not the issue.   What is the issue are the chances for injury and workplace violence and the liability issues that are often the consequence and incumbent with  these situations.

On the other hand we have a client who manages a non-profit group.  She says her best worker is someone on the sexual offenders list.   So go figure.

Nevertheless, we applaud Google for being proactive about its privacy breaches, as protect their users and avoid what we can politely call untenable situations.   Anytime there is a zero tolerance policy for any alleged acts that can cause harm to others, it is worth noting.

In a recent article in Healthcare IT News,  stud shows that only  sixty percent of the the respondents claimed they provided proof for employee training, and that only half mandated third party background checks on their employment applicants.  Data breaches are on the increase.   Seems like that would be logical, given the laxness of oversight and the relatively modest fines and penalties  violators face if they are actually caught.   Such breaches are the result of anything from stolen laptops to out and out theft of files and other proprietary information.

I blogged about this subject a number of times.    I wrote about it in the article, Suspect Care Givers Missed on Healthcare Sanctions Background Checks.   The paucity of oversight and the lack of background checks or keeping current by running either the FACIS search to ascertain disciplinary action is really quite remarkable.    Healthcare workers are often people dealing with patients who are weak and trusting and in need of trust.   It is really not nice to allow someone to gain proximity who would rip off their patients or take their drugs.   It is even worse when an enterprising healthcare worker sell medical records to third party conspirators.   There are known cases where a  celebrity patient’s records are pilfered and sold to the tabloids.  Nice.

The healthcare recruiting practice really needs a major overhaul.  Enough articles have been written; enough studies have been done.   As to when there will be

Between the lawsuits, involving the mortgage frauds, the securities fraud, and every other fraud that has come down the pike do the the recent calumnies of our investment sector, attorneys are enjoyinga thriving business.  The recent article in the Los Angeles Times, depicts happy days, at least for members of the bar, as being here again.

Banks and other financial institutions are seeking legal guidance.   Home owners who claim they were misled are looking to sue someone.  Contract breaches,  contested severance packages, you name it.  It’s going to court.

And with all this, there will be judgments.  Judgments lead lead to asset searches.   Asset searches are no easy matter.   Sometimes one must conduct intensive corporate research to trace the ownership of a corporation, and then determine where its assets are most likely hidden.  Er, stored.  Banked.

Corra does corporate research.   Corra can conduct access searches and can provide business credit research for millions of companies around the world.   In this fierce economic climate, we may be just what you need.

Check them out.

Years after multibillion-dollar scandals rocked corporate America, more than half of employees at both public and private companies admit they have witnessed lying, ethical breaches, or criminal behavior on the job — and most fail to report it, according to a new study.

From: Inc.com By: Angus Loten

The crackdown on corporate crime sparked six years ago by accounting scandals at Enron and WorldCom has done little to foster ethical behavior in the workplace, where many employees are still afraid to speak out about misconduct, a new study finds.Despite tougher laws against white-collar crimes, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and other strict oversight regulations, workers today are more likely to witness conflicts of interest, abusive behavior, or outright lying from company executives, according to the Ethics Resource Center, a Washington-based research group.Among 2,000 public- and private-sector employees surveyed nationwide, 56 percent said they had personally seen at least one violation of company ethics standards, policies or the law in the past year, up from 43 percent in 2003, the study found.

At the same time, less than 42 percent said they reported the incident through company channels.

For the entire article go to inc.com

Few things can be as demoralizing to companies as unethical business practices. Corra has heard stories from different sectors and different incidents involving unethical business practice. Most often it starts at the top and works its way down through the ranks. But not all the time.

Sometimes you get “creative” employees who want to cut corners to look good at their jobs. They will do almost anything to get results. Lying and cheating are far from out of the question.

That is but one more reason to run background checks on all your employment candidates. See what they have been up to in the past. See if they really are who they say they are. See if they are lying about information provided. If they lie in their application, odds are they will lie elsewhere.

Corra suggests the criminal check, obviously and the education verification among the other background searches you may select as part of your pre-employment screening program.

Check them out before you hire.

Despite a boost in IT spending, smaller firms continue to battle security breaches.

From: Inc.com | By: Liz Webber

Over forty percent of IT executives at small- and medium-sized businesses say their networks are not secure, even though almost all have firewalls and anti-virus software installed, according to a recent study.A survey of 455 SMBs by international software developer GFI also found 32 percent of companies experienced a security breach in the past year, most often due to a virus attack. Other problems included infected internet downloads and lost or stolen hardware, such as laptops.For the entire article go to Inc.com

Corra can say this with reasonable certainty. If you have a business then you have security issues. It comes with the territory. And the more we rely on technology, the more vigilant we have to be with security.

But not all security breaches come from the outside. Some of greater security breaches, data theft, etc., are inside jobs. More than a few have come from your most trusted employees. And then there is alway the issue of the IT person redirecting your valuable information.

This is one reason, among many, for running preemployment screening checks on all your job candidates. It can also be beneficial to run periodic background checks on your current employees. as well. It’s good to know what they have been up to, lately.

Security breaches are serious business. Checking your candidates for Social Security Trace and Criminal Trace is always a wise idea. The Criminal Trace is obvious. The social security trace will verify it is a valid number and it does belong to them. You would be surprised how many people out there are living and working on someone else’s social security number.

Check them out before you hire.

CHERTSEY, Research released today by Websense, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBSN) has revealed that temporary workers across the UK are unwittingly exposing businesses of all sizes to information security breaches. In the Information Open Access survey of more than 100 temporary staff, the findings indicate that organisations may be unnecessarily putting their data at risk by granting temporary staff access to confidential information at the same levels as permanent employees.

For the entire article go to www.topix.net

Corra is aware that this article is written in reference to practices in the UK. But if you think it is really any different in the US, think again. Companies spend thousand, hundreds of thousands of dollars deploying video monitors, firewalls, and all sorts of security systems, only to then hire someone who can walk off with proverbial store.

It is tough enough trusting all of your permanent employees with sensitive databases and proprietary information. What with changes in fortune, employees with substance abuse issues, gambling habits, bad divorces or wanton spending, it is no surprise that some workers will commit to desperate and stupid moves.

But if you are trusting a temp worker with your sensitive data, it’s akin to trusting a new babysitter with the combination to your safe. You are not only being lax with security you are tempting someone to make a stupid and costly move.

Chances are you are running pre-employment screening checks on your permanent workers. If you are not, considering the cost of rehiring and the liability issues, etc., it’s a real good time to start. And what about your temps? You think you are saving money by not checking them out before you allow them access to proprietary materials? Let them steal something of value, something maybe irreplaceable, or information you don’t want your competitors to have, and you will soon learn that you are being penny wise and dollar foolish.

You should be running criminal reports on all workers, and credit reports at the very least on those with access to sensitive databases. You should be running Social Security Traces to make sure they really are who they say they are. More and more, they aren’t.

Check them out before you hire.

]]> http://dailyplanet.corragroup.com/2008/01/do-you-put-your-data-in-easy-access-of-the-wrong-employees/feed/ 0 http://dailyplanet.corragroup.com/2007/09/email-job-offers-a-scam-whose-time-has-come/ http://dailyplanet.corragroup.com/2007/09/email-job-offers-a-scam-whose-time-has-come/#comments Mon, 17 Sep 2007 23:29:01 +0000 Gordon Basichis http://dailyplanet.corragroup.com/index.php/archives/2007/09/email-job-offers-a-scam-whose-time-has-come/ Ed Dickson

The recent reports about 1.3 million Monster users having their information stolen from the job site has become somewhat of a major news story. While this seems shocking, the truth is that job sites have been targeted by Internet criminals for information for several years now.

Jim Finkle at Retuers (courtesy of the Washington Post) recently covered this story:

Monster.com waited five days to tell its users about a security breach that resulted in the theft of confidential information from some 1.3 million job seekers, a company executive told Reuters on Thursday.

Hackers broke into the U.S. online recruitment site’s password-protected resume library using credentials that Monster Worldwide Inc said were stolen from its clients, in one of the biggest Internet security breaches in recent memory.

For the entire story go to Topix.net

Nary a week goes by that Corra isn’t approached by some scamming group to run background checks for them. the phony job offer it would seem is a new subdivision to the phony money lenders and the phony. If you are a job seeker, or your are a staffing group that is approached by what may be an illicit operation you should check out the company that offers you the position.

Or you could ignore them. But suppose they are for real, and if you are a legitimate staffing group of HR Unit who may have found a new channel for candidate provision, you don’t want to pass it up. So what to do?

Do some background checking. In addition to the criminal background search Corra can conduct business credit reports and comprehensive background searches on the listed individuals. We can also conduct business research on the company itself.

So don’t take a chance, but don’t let opportunity pass you by. Check them out before you get involved.

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