Whenever we talk about data security the first thing that organizations tend to do is to consult their IT department. The IT department can definitely help prevent or reduce fraudulent attempts from hackers (Assuming they are aptly equipped both skillfully and technically to create a robust and secure infrastructure). What still is beyond the control of the IT department is the unintentional data leak. For instance, most of the HR dashboard/reports are prepared by your HR executives based on the data extracted from various sources into excel form. The excel sheets then goes through a series of pivoting/formatting to compile a report which is sent to the senior managers who would further improve the report until it reaches the head of department or top management. During this process of data churning and report reformatting the confidential and crucial information is passed through several hands in several files via several emails.
Even if you have implemented technology to store all that data if the final dashboard to your top management is compiled by extracting all this data, the risk of leakage of the crucial raw data is very high. In spite of background verification, strict procedures, and apt technology, the leakage becomes too easy. Many organizations feel so helpless that they are not even alarmed at the prospect of their data being leaked outside of their organization.
What can be done?
There are some of the basic measures that would significantly reduce the risk of data leakage:
- Implement an industry standard HRIS
- Prevent exporting of data from all crucial reports
- Insist on getting the top management to view their reports online (invest if required in getting dashboards as per your needs)
- Insist on multi-factor authentication on your HRIS
- Data access to the HR department should be limited
- Background verification of your HR department (both at the time of joining and randomly during employment)
If you need help with security audit of your HR data, you may contact us. Mentis HRIS comes with Multi factor authentication, role based data access and top management dashboard. To know more visit us at www.mentishrms.com.