When operating a business as an owner or manager, the responsibilities may seem overwhelming. This is especially true in regards to the number of criminal threats that can shake up the way your business operates. It’s no shock that criminal activity of any kind has been known to cost organizations a great deal of both capital and time. Unfortunately, there are many organizations around the country that are largely unprepared to defend against this activity. What sort of security measures make the most difference, though? This post will identify and breakdown some of the methods to reduce the effects of this crime on businesses.
In the case of retail organizations, the crimes that they’ll have to defend against come in the forms of shoplifting, burglary and vandalism. Without the help of the right security tools or measures, these types of activities are hard to defend against. With the installation of security tools such as cameras, alarms and even shoplifting detection instruments, stopping these criminals in their tracks becomes much easier.
While these security measures are helpful, sometimes a business may need more protection. More unique protection services are offered by security organizations, such as close monitoring. With these comprehensive protection packages, systems are put in place that limit the ways that customers can criminalize an organization. Typically these systems utilize access codes, card readers and fingerprint readers in order to protect an organization’s central entry and exit points. Couple this protection with ID badges for all organizational personnel and the number of criminals accessing company property can be much more limited.
Of course criminal threats from outside of the organization are dangerous, but what about criminal threats from the inside? More and more organizations are experiencing internal fraud cases. In fact, upwards of 47% of companies have experienced some form of fraud over the past two years; coming in the forms of customer fraud, cybercrime and asset misappropriation. Often times these types of attacks are a collected effort between both internal and external members of an organization. Collusion only further exacerbates this criminal activity.
This type of internal fraud is only possible because of the employees willing to commit such crimes. Despite the best efforts of hiring managers, more and more employees have become willing to pursue such internal crimes. These crime extend to stealing cash, merchandise and much worse than both of the aforementioned, some employees are willing to indulge company trade secrets and intellectual property. When the right data is put into the wrong hands, an entire business can be put in jeopardy. In fact, nearly 30% of bankruptcies reported by businesses can be attributed to employee theft.
As mentioned previously, the battle of defense against these crimes begins in the hiring process. Sometimes the signs point towards bringing on the wrong employee, but with the right hiring processes, this can be avoided. Methods such as credit and background checks, contacting references and verifying information are imperative for the safety of any business.
Defending an organization from the inside is made much easier through the right cybersecurity measures. Simple methods such as stronger passwords are enough to defend against certain forms of identity theft and social engineering attacks. It goes without saying that every organization should employ the most upgraded firewalls and antivirus software for the sake of utmost protection.
Regardless of size or stature, any business can be at risk of being targeted by various types of crime. Making sure your organization is prepared for anything that is thrown its way is imperative for lasting success. For more information on how to properly defend your business from even the most sophisticated attacks, take a moment to review the infographic featured alongside this post. Courtesy of Cancom Systems.
