Danny works in IT. He has been at his new job about three months. His company had been working hard to get him up to speed on all of the different platforms and tools they utilized. They provided Danny with a four-hour video that explained how to use these platforms. One of them was a cloud storage system that Danny was unfamiliar with. He let the training slide for the time being as he had many other things to do.
He didn’t realize just how important the cloud storage system was. It housed all the company’s important files and their clients’ files. When Danny’s computer started working slower than normal, he assumed it had to do with the thousands of files in the cloud storage. He decided to delete most of the files, assuming they were just copies of the real files. He ended up deleting over 100,000 files, videos, and records that were crucial to the business and their clients. The company had not backed up the files in a secondary location, so the files were lost for good.
Did you spot the red flags?
• Danny should have taken the training videos before interacting with the cloud platform.
• He also should have checked with a supervisor before deleting files from the platform.
• The company should have had the files backed up on a separate location to avoid these issues. They also could have limited employees’ access to important documents, only allowing access to those needed for the role.
What you should know about this scam
Insider threats are not always malicious. In this case, the company lost a huge amount of important data because of a mix of cyber fatigue and lack of training. While sometimes long trainings are necessary, if the employee could have watched quick training videos over a longer period of time on the platform, he could have reduced stress, increased productivity, and avoided this mishap.
While cloud platforms serve as great locations to store files, it is still important to backup these documents or have copies stored in another secure location.