1. Do you agree or disagree with the author's assertions
regarding seasonal employees and cybersecurity risks in the
work place? Why?
Yes, I do agree with the author’s assertions regarding seasonal
employees and the risks involved in the workplace relating to
cybersecurity. Seasonal employment usually comes along with the
risk of one staying jobless for a time, on the part of the working
force. In these days, where jobs can take time to turn around, the
time to search for other jobs by people who are temporarily laid
off due to seasonal employment can be stressful and at times
even prove to be unfruitful, where one goes stays unemployed
for a longer while before getting employed.
With this, it sometimes drives some people with malicious
intentions. Thus, some would tend to sell company information to
other parties for money or engage in profiting of off the company
or its clients, themselves using whatever they got from their time
at that company. This creates risks with seasonal employment,
especially with cybersecurity since we’re in a more digitalized
world.
2. What steps can (should) managers take to reduce security
risks associated with hiring seasonal or temporary
employees? (Consider whether or not the Secure Computer
User training course would be appropriate for these
employees.)
Mangers can firstly try to increase the duration of the season, to
create short durations between seasons, to keep such employees
almost all the time occupied. This would look like a permanent,
full employment. Say for example, during the Christmas period,
since families will be shopping more and supermarkets would be
crowded, these stores will employ more people, as extra hands
temporarily, to help with the pressure that will come to these
stores.
However, instead of laying them off right after Christmas and the
festive season, these shops can choose to extend the duration of
employment for a little while till another seasonal window opens.
By doing this, companies compensate them for the benefits they
would have lost not working and also provide them with
something to do before the next seasonal change. Doing this,
companies reduce the risks of any confidential data leaks and
cybersecurity attacks by using inside information.
Also, managers can investigate or research properly, the
backgrounds and the motivation of every single employee during
seasonal employment. Before and after interviews for hiring,
managers should make it a duty to carefully research everyone to
make sure they are bringing in people with the right motivation
and working ethics. This helps reduce the risks of employing
double-faced employees and pretenders. It also reduces
cybersecurity risks.
Again, managers should pay seasonal employees what they
deserve and if overtime, they should be paid to incentivize them
to keep good working ethics and not put the company at risk.
3. How can managers show leadership in the area of
cybersecurity defenses and best practices?
Managers can restrict who gets access to what data, when it
comes to especially seasonal employees. Doing this will ensure a
‘need-to-know’ operational system, where information is only
limited to your duties. This helps to protect critical information
and reduces cybersecurity risks. For instance, if a seasonal
employee’s duty is to operate the forklift, then the only
information about the company that this employee is privy to, is
only that of concerning the forklift and the stuff the forklift will
be used to carry.
Also, managers can also ensure regular security changes. This can
be done such that passcodes, passwords and other critical
security information will be safe and not one person will know
what the exact information is at a point in time. This prevents
situations like, in the case where past employees can still access
company info. Since it changes, past employees would definitely
have their access codes and all other access and permissions
revoked and they won’t also be able to guess or pirate
information easily.
Reference:
https://securityintelligence.com/seasonal-employee-security-risks-
present-danger-proactive-defense/
