By now, many HR professionals are well aware of the risks posed by data breaches, security incidents, and employee identity theft. They are also very quickly beginning to understand how protecting an employee’s identity can help protect their bottom line via reduced litigation costs, improved engagement, and increased productivity.

However, there is one benefit of employee identity protection that receives much less media attention than it deserves: When a company provides their team with a quality employee identity protection benefit, they significantly bolster corporate security.

The key word here is “quality.” Depending on the provider, the features of an identity protection plan will vary greatly. For this article, we will focus on four key benefits that come standard with InfoArmor’s signature benefit, PrivacyArmor, because they are some of the most important features to promoting corporate security.

Providing ongoing education

In addition to protecting your employees’ social media accounts, a quality identity protection benefit will provide your employees with ongoing education and timely updates on a wide range of pressing issues.

Some examples of this might include:

  • Sharing best practices for creating passwords, safeguarding accounts, and taking other actions that bolster corporate security

  • Revealing the latest tactics hackers, identity thieves, and cybercriminals are using to attack employees and their employers

  • Alerting participants to data breaches and security incidents in a timely fashion

A quality identity protection benefit will also provide ongoing assistance to the employer as well. This should include helping HR determine who among their team is most likely to be targeted by identity thieves, providing a dedicated account manager that will become familiar with the employer’s unique needs, frequently sharing important usage metrics, and answering any questions HR may have.  

Protecting employees’ social media accounts

If you’re wondering how protecting an employee’s social media accounts can improve corporate security, you’re not alone. The connection isn’t immediately apparent, and that speaks to the complex and relatively unknown paths cybercriminals use to compromise businesses.

Hijacking an employee’s social media account is an incredibly effective means of harming the victim’s employer. Once a cybercriminal takes control of your employee’s account, they can use it to defame your business, phish fellow employees, and defraud customers, clients, and partners.

A quality employee identity protection plan will monitor your employees’ social media accounts and alert them at the first sign of account takeover. This ensures the problem can be remedied in the shortest possible time — significantly limiting the risk to your employee and your business.

Protecting corporate credit cards, usernames, and passwords

An identity protection benefit should also protect the contents of an employee’s wallet — especially if it contains a company credit card. When an employee registers important documents — like their driver’s license and credit/debit cards — the identity protection provider should begin scouring the dark web immediately. Your employees’ usernames and passwords should also be monitored and protected. After all, many users use the same password for their personal accounts as they do their work accounts. This makes it very easy for cybercriminals to gain access to sensitive corporate accounts.

If an identity protection service finds any of an employee’s sensitive data appearing in places it shouldn’t, the provider should alert your employee in near-real time and work with them to remedy the situation. In the event their identity has also been compromised, your provider should work around the clock to help the employee restore it in the shortest time possible.

Keeping security top of mind

One of the most important benefits PrivacyArmor offers is also one of the least detectable: we help keep corporate security top of mind for employees.

When a teammate is notified of important security risks, compromised credentials, or suspected hijacking, their levels of awareness aren’t limited to their personal privacy and security. They begin making better decisions that positively impact their employer as well, including:

  • Creating more secure passwords

  • Stopping sharing passwords with co-workers

  • Becoming more aware of phishing scams

  • Using more secure networks when working remotely

And, unlike other identity protection providers, PrivacyArmor doesn’t flood participants with unneccessary communication, pings, or notifications. By being selective in our communication and only alerting on truly actionable items, we help protect employees and businesses from cyber fatigue — one of the leading causes of data breaches, security incidents, and general data loss.

Next steps

If you’d like to improve corporate security at your organization, it’s a good idea to consider offering your employees a quality identity protection benefit. However, be certain to identify the key features your organization needs and compare those amongst providers, as offerings vary greatly. You can use our editable document, Identity Protection Service Checklist, in your search for the best provider.

If you’d like to learn more about other ways identity protection can help your corporation or you’re looking for additional ideas on how to keep your employees safe, you can download our complimentary ebook, The HR Guide to Employee Data Protection and Identity Theft.

Would you like to experience PrivacyArmor for yourself? You can request a complimentary, no-obligation demo of our employee identity protection benefit offering.