Workplace deviance refers to the intentional causation of damage, discomfort, or punishment to an organization or individual within the organization. An employee may feel the urge to become a deviant within the organization, perhaps, after they feel as if they are being mistreated. Workplace deviance can take up many forms such as: working slower, sabotage of work, or divulgence of confidential information. Within the cyber workspace, it is even easier to partake in workplace deviance due to a large amount of information continuously moving and most cybersecurity defenses being aimed toward outside attacks. Cyber professionals are entrusted with very valuable information and access that could completely shut down an organization, ranging from a mass collection of user information, trade secrets, or financial and legal information. Any employee with access to this information could cause immense damage to an organization; which is why screening and careful consideration of a new employee is considered a cybersecurity practice as a new employee who may not have the self-control or the temperament to be trusted with vital information can cause great damage to the organization. A very competitive and cutthroat workplace environment can cause a stressful situation for an employee leading to a hateful and dangerous member of the organization. Deviants may not even try to damage the organization itself but moreover, other employees quite literally become a nuisance. This could be in form of simple irritating “pranks” to sexual harassment.

So, an employee feeling as if they are not being treated fairly, or any event or treatment that causes an employee to turn into a workplace deviant, can cause major damage to an organization. This damage can easily be caused by an insider that may range from lack of effort to divulging or destruction of crucial and sensitive information/data.