Screening for Risk In the Hybrid Era

Most cybersecurity attacks are an inside job–carried out by employees knowingly (and maliciously) or accidentally. The emergence of hybrid work is likely to blame. 

Last week on the blog, we explored just how common internal cyber threats are becoming and shared our top three tips for creating a culture of cybersecurity that prevents them. 

A recent study by Kroll found that it’s probably the hybrid work model–made popular by the COVID-19 pandemic– that’s increasing employ-led cyberattacks at a steady rate. 

Insider threats accounted for nearly 35% of all unauthorized access cyber incidents in Q3 compared to 25% in Q2 (the highest quarterly percentage to date), and most of these internal incidents were incited by hybrid work complications—such as employees using their own devices on unprotected networks or moving information to their home offices on easy-to-lose USB drives. 

The Best Defense is Offense 

The hybrid work model, however, is affecting the security of your business in another–more subtle and dangerous–way: it’s making it more difficult to screen candidates effectively. 

Now, there’s more coordination involved in getting a candidate through the screening process, making it nearly impossible to dot your i’s and cross your t’s (especially when candidates are expecting a quick and easy hiring process).  Interviews are often conducted remotely—making it harder to get an accurate read on a candidate. Candidates are lying at a higher rate than ever before on their resumes—increasing the risk of making a bad hire. 

All of this to say: the additional work involved in recruiting and employing candidates in this hybrid era makes it difficult to detect threats during the hiring process. 

That’s why organizations across the country are changing the way they screen employees. They’re going on the offensive and adopting modern pre-employment techniques that help them make the right hire–a hire that won’t open them to security risks on or offline. 

Toto, We’re Not Just in Kansas Anymore 

Prior to the pandemic, most job openings were tied to a specific location. It wasn’t uncommon for employees to uproot their families and move to another state to take a job or for young professionals to move to a specific city to make it happen in their desired career. 

Now, hiring across state lines (or even internationally) is the new normal with the popularization and normalization of remote work–and the emergence of quality remote work technology (like Zoom or Slack). 

Unfortunately, however, each state has a different set of rules when it comes to the hiring process and employment—and those laws are changing rapidly to keep up with the shifting labor market. That means a lot of extra research and additional paperwork for recruiting, hiring, and HR professionals if you choose to hire out of state. 

That’s why organizations across the country are enlisting the help of industry-leading employment screening solutions like S2Verify. 

Not only do pre-employment platforms like S2Verify help you thoroughly and reliably vet a candidate in another state, but we also help you organize the additional work and documentation that hybrid work creates.

After all, it’s what we do. It’s what we work on every single day. 

Through a thorough understanding of geographical and industry regulations, we help you stay compliant–while also detecting threats–so you can make a hire that is more likely to stay and less likely to put your business at risk.  

Tools For Doing Your Due Diligence 

Employment screening doesn’t look like it used to anymore. Gone are the days of a simple criminal background check and quick calls to references to vet a candidate—now, background screening involves several additional layers designed to detect threats. 

A quality employment screening solution in the hybrid-work era will include the following services, tools, and data: 

• Social security number trace to confirm past address history. 

• National criminal file search to parse through criminal data from local, state, and federal repositories–including the Sex Offender Registry and government watch lists.  

• Sex offender criminal search to get more detailed information from public and tribal registries not included in the national criminal file search. 

• County criminal/other public records search to get county-level access to information regarding felony and misdemeanor convictions, arrests, and/or pending cases. 

• Statewide criminal/public records search to get state-level access to conviction records. 

• Federal criminal/public records search to get access to federal-level crimes, including kidnapping, drug trafficking, bank robbery, embezzlement, counterfeiting, and other “white collar” crimes. Crimes involving the crossing of state borders should also be included. 

• Driving records and motor vehicle records search for applicants that will operate a motor vehicle, including a company car or forklift. 

• Employment verification to confirm a candidate’s references and work history. 

• Education verification to validate a candidate’s degree or GED earned from an accredited institution. 

• Credit report to get insight into a potential hire’s financial distress that might indicate risk of theft or fraud. 

• Professional license verification checks a candidate’s credentials for roles that require a license to practice the profession. 

• Drug screening services make it easy for candidates to schedule and complete a drug test at an official collection site. 

• International screening services and consultations to help you hire top talent from across the world and navigate variable international hiring/employment laws.

Screening High-Access Candidates

On their own, the tools and services don’t cover enough ground to vet any candidate in the remote work era fully, but together they close the gaps to create an employment screening shield that protects your business from potential insider threats. 

This holistic, meticulous employment screening solution becomes especially critical when hiring IT professionals and other employees with open access to your systems and data. 

High-access employees are naturally high-risk employees due to the sensitive information they handle on a daily basis. Protect yourself from dangerous insider threats–like cyberattacks and data leaks–by finding a pre-employment solution that checks your boxes.