Identity theft in the workplace is more common than you think

And it can come from many different people, from a dishonest co-worker, to a temp working in HR, even a visitor to your office building.  If you’re not careful, any of these people can have access to your personal information—and who knows what they’ll do if they get their hands on it.

To keep sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands, here are 3 steps employers and employees both should take:

1. Keep your personal property in a safe place: Don’t leave your personal belongings such as purses, wallets and laptops unattended. Either have them on your person at all times or keep them in a locked place to which  only you have the key. Also, make sure all documents you have containing personal  information are either on an encrypted computer or stored in a locked file cabinet. When you’re away from your desk, make sure you never leave one of these files open on your computer or one of these cabinet drawers open.
2. Always assume your work computer is being monitored:  That’s because many employers will routinely scan the content of employees’ email and monitor their Internet use. Because of this, employees should never use their work computers to access password-protected personal accounts, do online banking, send non work-related emails containing personal information or store documents with personally identifying information.
3. Maintain strict information security policies at your workplace: Among many other things, employers should restrict access of employee personnel data to authorized individuals only and make sure all files containing personal information are stored on encrypted computers, locked file cabinets or secure offsite facilities.

They should also educate employees on all information security measures they’re taking, train employees on their data security responsibilities and require them (as part of their jobs) to obey the data security policy.