All companies experience theft. However, most of us think of physical items when we think of stealing in the workplace. Information theft is a serious and very real problem for today’s businesses. When too many people have access to a company’s important records this causes serious security problems. On the other hand, when you limit information access you immediately reduce the potential damage that can be done to your company.

The way to control access to your network is by using the least privilege whitepapers principle. This means you simply implement a permission based system that is based on the data access need of the job. If you stop and think what can happen to company documents on a server it is really quite frightening. Documents can be altered, stolen and deleted. Obviously stealing company records is willful, but deleted records could be done by mistake. Nevertheless, when you all server access is based solely on the need of the job you significantly reduce possible security breaches.

It is also important that you make your employees understand why you have decided to go with a permission based access system. Allow them free access to all least privilege whitepapers. Remember, this in no way a personal issue to punish an employee, it is just makes sound business sense to proceed in this manner. Explain to them, that the financial well-being of the company is in everyone’s best interest. Your employees need to know that stolen documents can cause your business to lose customers, vendors, and affect profits. Of course, there is bound to be a bruised ego or two. It is best to deal with them privately.

We all know the Internet is filled with viruses, Trojans, and malware. Limiting access to your company’s most precious records helps guard against these threats. The truth is viruses can bring down your network. Every business has an unhappy employee. Yet, if this unhappy employee is tech savvy, and has full access to company documents, he could be sabotaging your business right before your eyes. The truth is you might never find this out until it is too late. You must implement the least privilege whitepapers principle today.

To conclude, information is stolen from companies every day. There is no sound business reason all employees must have access to every company record. The prudent move is to implement network permissions based on the needs of the individual job. Failure to implement the least privilege principle could seriously hurt your business.