The Federal Trade Commission cites 90 percent of all business record thefts from employment and payroll data.
July 29, 2006
According to a recent TransUnion report, one of the leading causes of identity theft is confidential employer record theft. This avenue surpasses that of mail, credit card and wallet theft. The Federal Trade Commission cites 90 percent of all business record thefts from employment and payroll data. These records include legal names, birth dates, social security numbers, addresses and telephone numbers, banking and account numbers.
Using this data, criminals purchase cars, open credit card accounts and rent apartments. Once leaked, there’s no way to control its distribution to other criminals. Victims are now starting to file lawsuits against employers for negligence. But there are steps employers can take to safeguard employee records and guard against litigation exposure.
Employers must enforce stronger security measures to protect and dispose of sensitive data. These include locking and/or limiting access to employee information files, developing strict guidelines regarding information release via subpoena or other requests, enforcing a clean desk policy, masking social security numbers and shredding unnecessary files.
“Employers are becoming more and more concerned about their legal and ethical obligation to safeguard employee data,” states Hooman Nikzad, Managing Partner at National PEO, LLC. “We’ve seen an influx of inquiries resulting from employee pressures.”
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