How has cyber technology created opportunities for workplace deviance?

Workplace deviance has many definitions but generally it describes employee behavior that intentionally harms their organization. Cyber technology has opened new avenues for this behavior that present challenges for organizations.

As companies increase their use of networking infrastructure for their daily operations, they become increasingly vulnerable to threats to the information on those networks. Companies are growing their understanding that cybersecurity is paramount and are taking steps to protect sensitive information.

Many threats to this information are external. However, a disgruntled employee can also pose a threat, and a potent one, as they can have exclusive access to company information. This internal threat can come in many forms. The employee can have special access to sensitive materials and simply steal it and share it with unauthorized persons. This information could be trade-secrets, the personal information of employees etc. Ensuring that appropriate background checks are done for people with special access is vital to keeping the risk of this form of workplace deviance low. However, the employee in question doesn’t need to have access themselves. This person could gain access through someone else’s authentication tools and do the same damage. Password sharing is sometimes done by employees for the sake of expedience. Imagine someone’s system is down and they borrow an employee’s password temporarily to complete a task. This practice might seem harmless, but it opens a company up to additional risk and should be discouraged.

Another example of cyber-related workplace deviance is that of an employee disabling existing cybersecurity measures. An employee who has access to any of the various measures a company takes to protect their information could disable them. With smaller companies there might be a singular IT professional on staff who handles this. If this employee becomes upset and wishes to do harm, they might be the only one who would notice if defenses against cybersecurity were weakened. Strong background checks are important in this case as well. Management should be aware of this potential harm and be diligent when making personnel decisions.