Due to the soaring cost of identity theft, our state and federal lawmakers have passed some very stringent laws that apply to all businesses with one or more employees.
Non-compliance could cost you or your business up to $1 million in fines and up to 10 years in prison. There are federal and state laws that require business owners to secure all personal information of their clients and employees. Some 87 percent of businesses are not aware that these laws affect them or that they even exist.
Non-compliance could result in the closing of the business, fines, penalties and criminal and civil litigation. In fact, it is expected to be the next hot class action target.
Disgruntled workers with access to the data files of your clients or employees can make a lot of money selling little pieces of your people. They can sell a client's social security number, credit card information or their financial identity, as well as their driver license identity, which could have a negative impact on your client's character/criminal identity if someone broke the law and got caught with your client's driver license.
Database leaks stem primarily from disbelief that identity theft is real. Therefore, employers do not take the necessary precautions to protect their client and employee information, which can cost the company clients.
A 2006 article inChief Information Officer magazine states, “If you experience a security breach, 20 percent of your affected customer base will no longer do business with you, 40 percent will consider ending their relationship and 5 percent will be hiring lawyers.” The article also states, “When it comes to cleaning up this mess, companies on average spend 1,600 work hours per incident at a cost of $40,000 to $92,000 per victim.”
“You don't have to have a perfect plan, but you must have a written plan describing how customer and employee data will be protected, and an officer on staff responsible for implementing that plan. We need to see that you've taken reasonable steps to protect your customer's information,” said Betty Broder, the assistant director of the FTC's Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, in a 2006 American Bar Association article.
One solution is to offer some type of identity theft protection as an employee benefit and have a mandatory employee meeting on identity theft and the protection you are making available. By having a mandatory meeting, the employees will understand their responsibilities to protect the sensitive data of your business.
Belinda Rachman shows business clients and individuals how to protect themselves from the No. 1 fastest growing crime in the world. For more information, call her at (760) 720-9324 or visit
www.idtheftspecialist.info.
Non-compliance could cost you or your business up to $1 million in fines and up to 10 years in prison. There are federal and state laws that require business owners to secure all personal information of their clients and employees. Some 87 percent of businesses are not aware that these laws affect them or that they even exist.
Non-compliance could result in the closing of the business, fines, penalties and criminal and civil litigation. In fact, it is expected to be the next hot class action target.
Disgruntled workers with access to the data files of your clients or employees can make a lot of money selling little pieces of your people. They can sell a client's social security number, credit card information or their financial identity, as well as their driver license identity, which could have a negative impact on your client's character/criminal identity if someone broke the law and got caught with your client's driver license.
Database leaks stem primarily from disbelief that identity theft is real. Therefore, employers do not take the necessary precautions to protect their client and employee information, which can cost the company clients.
A 2006 article inChief Information Officer magazine states, “If you experience a security breach, 20 percent of your affected customer base will no longer do business with you, 40 percent will consider ending their relationship and 5 percent will be hiring lawyers.” The article also states, “When it comes to cleaning up this mess, companies on average spend 1,600 work hours per incident at a cost of $40,000 to $92,000 per victim.”
“You don't have to have a perfect plan, but you must have a written plan describing how customer and employee data will be protected, and an officer on staff responsible for implementing that plan. We need to see that you've taken reasonable steps to protect your customer's information,” said Betty Broder, the assistant director of the FTC's Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, in a 2006 American Bar Association article.
One solution is to offer some type of identity theft protection as an employee benefit and have a mandatory employee meeting on identity theft and the protection you are making available. By having a mandatory meeting, the employees will understand their responsibilities to protect the sensitive data of your business.
Belinda Rachman shows business clients and individuals how to protect themselves from the No. 1 fastest growing crime in the world. For more information, call her at (760) 720-9324 or visit
www.idtheftspecialist.info.