Cybersecurity | Protecting Employee Data

Over the last few years, there has been a significant upward trend in cyber threats targeting employee data. Cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated and the motivations behind attacks vary from financial gain to intelligence gathering and data breaches. With personal and financial data having a high value on the ‘black market’, employee records are prime targets. Globally there is a rising threat landscape and UK business is no exception.

Employee data can include sensitive information such as ethnicity, family and health, alongside bank and salary details. Anyone can be at risk from a data breach that exposes this confidential, sensitive data and a breach can have significant legal and financial consequences, including substantial fines. So, to avoid or at least mitigate these consequences, businesses need to adopt proactive cybersecurity measures.

One of the most crucial aspects of protecting employee data is through adherence to the law, namely the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK’s implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). UK GDPR imposes data protection obligations on organisations and failing to adequately protect employee data can result in financial penalties, that can be substantial.

Business must ensure that employee data is collected, processed, and stored securely, and that employees' rights regarding their data are upheld. To safeguard employee information and pay details you should implement a comprehensive and proactive approach to cybersecurity, with key measures such as: