Identity Fraud in Focus quarterly report
8 min
Chapter I: Competition Gets Hotter for Best Skilled Workers
Chapter II: Recapping the Threat
Chapter III: It Takes the Total Package
Chapter IV: Wellness In All Its Forms
Chapter V: Finding the Best Solution
Competition Gets Hotter for Best Skilled Workers
From political squabbles to flea season, there’s enough bad news to make just about everyone run for the next mindfulness class daily. So, how about some good news? Here’s some: The U.S. economy continues to track upward.
The unemployment rate remains historically low, with millennials now representing one-third — a majority — of all workers. For HR professionals, that means identity protection is an increasingly important benefit for recruitment and retention.
The U.S. economy added 196,000 jobs in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and ADP reported another 275,000 in April. Couple that with a chronic shortage of skilled labor and companies face continued competition when it comes to hiring and retaining the most highly sought associates. That tends to put the onus on HR professionals like you to come up with benefits and other incentives to help attract and keep a coveted workforce.
That’s especially true for millennials, who are predicted to compose 75 percent of the workforce by 2025. In a Gallup survey, 60 percent of millennial respondents said it’s not only important, but critical, for employers to support their financial, social, and physical well-being.
If you’re already thinking your benefits package needs to include identity theft protection in order to remain competitive, you’re ahead of the curve. Securing your company’s data is a good first step, but there’s more to it than that. As a voluntary benefit option, identity theft protection should be more than a product your company or organization buys for its workforce.
PrivacyArmor, for example, is a partnership in comprehensive personal identity protection. It comes with 24/7 monitoring and on-call advocates, monitors financial and social media accounts, and extends coverage to employees’ families. If restoration services are needed, PrivacyArmor is there to guide clients through the process of becoming whole again, even offering access to cash. For clients who experience financial loss due to identity theft, that provides comfort when they need it most.
Recapping the Threat
Before we dive deeper into what you’ll want to know when choosing an identity protection benefit, let’s recap the threat that makes the benefit so important.
Data breaches have become the new normal. The personal information of billions of people was exposed in 2018, including 750 million in just one three-month stretch. Along with individuals, companies of all sizes in the hospitality, financial, and health sectors are routinely targeted, as are education institutions, government offices, and others. In short, no one is immune, making identity threat protection one of the most important benefits you can offer.
Americans now consider criminal hacking as the number one threat to their health, safety, and prosperity, and 40 percent say they have either been a victim of identity theft, or know someone who has.
Identity theft not only drains bank accounts and maxes out credit cards, but can get in the way of buying or renting a home and obtaining employment. Criminals, who can purchase stolen personal data on the dark web, are able to obtain drivers licenses and other official ID documents using the names of data theft victims. In short, individual and corporate reputations can be ruined by personal data theft.
Recovering from identity theft can take hundreds of frustrating hours and many months, making it imperative that any protection benefit include expert remediation assistance.
It Takes the Total Package
It takes five players on a basketball court and nine on the baseball diamond to compete as a team — and teamwork also is paramount when it comes to protecting your workforce from personal data theft. That’s why a package of services, from awareness building and education through full recovery, makes the most attractive protection benefit. Here’s what it should contain:
Knowledge is power. The most effective data protection benefit will include engaging resources to help you educate your employees about cyber security, and not in a one-and-done scenario. Threats and security awareness continue to evolve and regular updates will keep you and your team up-to-date.
Ubiquitous monitoring. Early detection is key to containing any fallout from personal data theft. Perhaps that credit application, fund transfer or password reset was intended. But, what if it’s a cybercriminal at work? A stolen social media account can cause harm to your employee or the employee’s family members if the cybercriminal posts inappropriate content. Quick alerts quickly notify your protected associates in case detected activity is not authorized.
Keep wallet contents in the vault. In the event of a lost or stolen wallet, imagine how much less anxious you would be knowing your driver’s license, passport, insurance card numbers, and the data for other vital documents were locked away securely in an online vault and easily recoverable.
Dedicated support. If a personal data theft incident occurs, wouldn’t you be comforted to know there are certified privacy advocates on-call 24/7 to help? And how about a dedicated support manager? Rather than being assigned a random representative, would you prefer if your company was assigned a single manager to answer any questions? We think we know how you’d answer that — with an emphatic “yes!”
Rapid response. With data breaches occurring with record frequency, you’ll want the peace of mind of knowing that your protection package helped you organize a response team ready to execute the plan you have in place while working to prevent any future breaches.
Highest-quality protection that’s affordable. Companies and organizations come in all sizes, and their budgets vary widely. It’s important to know if the solutions you’re considering for an identity theft protection benefit program come with flexible pricing and payment options.
Wellness in All Its Forms
In our HR.com webinar, The Unseen HR Risks No One Is Talking About: From Botnet Attacks to Video Games, more than 200 HR professionals correctly answered that most data breaches — 85 percent — are the result of unintentional errors rather than attacks by malicious hackers. More than two-thirds of the HR professionals also said their company shares employee data such as Social Security numbers and birthdates with third-party organizations for tax compliance, payroll, and benefits administration, among other necessary reasons.
Want to see a staggering statistic? While 23 percent reported having one or more employee who was a victim of identity theft, 30 percent of the HR professionals said they themselves have been victims of identity theft! With tens of millions of Americans joining that list annually, it’s no wonder that identity threat protection has zoomed up the charts as a cherished employee benefit.
As much as 50 percent of identity theft begins at work. Facing vulnerability with personal data stored by employers as well as private accounts can take a toll on even the most well adjusted among us. While data theft can lead to financial loss, it also can damage a company’s reputation while causing considerable harm to the well-being of the victimized employee. That can lead to disengagement and a loss of productivity while drastically increasing employee safety incidents.
Fortunately, there are solutions both for defending against data breaches and responding to and mitigating attacks if they do occur. Extending those layers of protection as an employee benefit can provide a sense of safety that goes hand-in-hand with the other physical and financial wellness programs and benefits you may offer.
In our now mobile society, awareness is more critical than ever before. Your associates may be targeted through more creative means than hacking their data stored at work With attacks escalating in the hotel industry, for example, a vacation enjoyed by an unprotected employee could take an unexpected turn from peace to stress overnight. Remote-working employees may also face risks their commuting peers may not and the right level of protection could offer immeasurable peace of mind.
Finding The Best Solution
Teaching employees to handle personal data and how to recognize and prevent attacks, such as spotting email phishing attempts, is a good place to start. However, that’s only the beginning. Offering password management solutions and an array of protective services is the best way to help employees feel secure.
With all the protection products available, look for ones that offer all the features employees and the most desirable candidates want and need most. That will allow you to proudly and confidently roll out this new benefit. Does it:
Monitor more than credit? Credit scores and reports are important, but that’s simply not sufficient in today’s environment. Employees who know someone is monitoring for unauthorized account access, address changes, and fund transfers can sleep better at night.
Protect social media accounts? In addition to potential damage to personal reputations, a stolen social media account can be a gateway for cyber criminals to attempt phishing scams on family, friends, co-workers, and other contacts.
Assist with identity restoration? The stress, disruption, and labor that comes with identity theft can puncture your employee’s sense of well-being and have a negative impact on productivity. A protection benefit that includes dedicated, 24/7 high level professional help will allow the victimized employee to let go of the associated anxiety and help recapture that normal state of well-being.
Offer preemptive intelligence? Monitoring criminal activity on the dark web using embedded human operatives can help ward off an attack before it happens.
Come with a user-friendly app? So many of us live with our mobile devices as if they were appendages present upon our birth. An identity protection benefit that comes with a mobile app is likely to be expected and appreciated.
Provide pay advances and other financial restoration features? Even with a response plan in motion, restoration can’t happen overnight. An employee who has suffered financial loss because of identity theft can begin to start feeling whole again with access to cash, if needed.
We at InfoArmor believe privacy, security, and peace of mind are rights we all deserve. Adding our PrivacyArmor to your benefits portfolio can offer your employees just that. With new features such as IP address monitoring fraud reimbursement and advances in the case of stolen funds, credit lock for your employees and their families, and more, you can add the benefit that truly allows your workforce to feel protected while enhancing your efforts to recruit and retain the most desired team members in this competitive period.
To request a demo of our platform, inquire about pricing, or ask additional questions, please visit the PrivacyArmor page on the InfoArmor website at https://www.infoarmor.com/employee-protection-solutions, or contact InfoArmor sales at (480) 302-6701, or email sales@infoarmor.com.