Prevent Security Breach by Monitoring Employee Work Hours

  Published : October 29, 2024
  Last Updated: October 29, 2024
Prevent Security Breach by Monitoring Employee Work Hours

 

The threat of cyber theft is real and every organization today takes all necessary precautions to protect itself and its sensitive data from hackers. However, hackers are a different breed, constantly devising new methods to exploit vulnerabilities and gain access to a company’s data.

One of the easiest ways to do this is through employees’ computers. Imagine this scenario: you have two employees, one with a busy schedule that sees him working late into the night while the other has fewer responsibilities and has a more structured work day, with consistent office hours. However, the company’s cybersecurity team noticed unusual activity on the second employee’s laptop, well outside normal work hours and late in the night. There was an attempt at breaching the laptop and accessing confidential company data that the user had no reason to access.

How was the security team able to detect and flag the laptop so accurately? This company was tracking employee computer activity and had equipped all laptops with cybersecurity systems that detect any changes in user behavior. Deviations are noted, and by applying ML and domain knowledge, the system was able to thwart the attempt quickly.

Now let’s talk about how a simple protection method and regularly monitoring employee computer activity can help intuitively detect anomalies in working hours and ensure data security. But first, a little background.

Using Working Hours and Non-Working Hours To Predict An Attack

The pandemic changed the definition of typical working hours. With the introduction of the new ‘work from home’ policies that all companies had to adopt, there was an increase in flexibility and many employees chose hybrid working hours that fit their schedules. Even with this ‘new normal’, most people tend to create a daily routine and it is possible to define predictable work hours for individuals. This makes it easier to determine when they are most likely to access company data.

Once working hours are established, it would naturally be considered suspicious if someone was found working outside of their normal working hours. It could be an outside hacker trying to use an employee’s compromised credentials to access the company’s data. Or it could be the employee attempting to steal company information during their non-working hours. Knowing about the typical working and non-working hours of an individual and a group can help a company understand the possibility of when and where an attack can occur.

Breaking Down And Defining Working Hours Per Group

Before we go further, let’s look at profiling the various working hours in an office setting according to groups. There are three logical groups in any workplace:

Global Working Hours

The first group indicates a routine of working days and hours in the entire organization. In most cases, people work five days a week, starting in the morning and leaving in the afternoon or early evening. This also includes events, such as holidays, that relate to most employees.

Joint Working Hours

Here we break down the organization into smaller subgroups where some common factors come into play. Teammates, and peers from different teams occasionally work together on the same project, and managers might need to work into the evening. Certain group members could also arrive early and leave earlier than others if they have personal responsibilities, such as picking up kids from school, etc.

Individual Working Hours

Finally, we have a group where the focus is on understanding each employee’s pattern of work-life cycle.

Understanding Working Hours According To The Time Context

While some individuals often work beyond their normal hours, they are usually outliers. So, if anyone is found to be working at 2 or 3 in the morning it will certainly raise suspicion. However, if someone is working during that hour on a company holiday, it should set off alarm bells.

Let’s take a look at the context of time to understand the significance of security better.

Weekends

One can assume that most companies will observe less activity on weekends. Since most weekends are two days, a business should define a weekend as two days of less activity after every five days.

Holidays

Other than weekends, which repeat consistently, all low-activity days that are not weekends can be assumed to be holidays or fun days outside the office.

Sleep Time

The hours before the start of a workday can be defined as sleep time. There is a drop in working hours in the evening but from midnight until about 6 am, there should be no activity, which must be defined as the sleeping time.

Applying The Detection Approach

Once we are equipped with the ability to track each employee’s working hours according to their group and time context, it is easier to detect suspicious working hours per employee. Over time it is possible to identify the most suspicious out-of-hours work for each employee and alert when a significant anomaly occurs.

Take care; an alert is simply an indication. For instance, an employee might work late into the night to complete a presentation for a new idea or an individual might skip a morning exercise session to begin work early. An effort should be made to acquire more information before sounding an alarm.

Also Read: Complete Guide to Employee Timesheets and Their Software

Conclusion

Done responsibly, employee monitoring can protect both employees and the company from serious fraud and future complications. It’s no surprise, then, that the employee monitoring market is expected to reach $6.9 billion by 2030.

Frequently Asked Question

Q1. Is Working Out of Hours a Reliable Detection Technique?

Data breaches are not restricted to late nights; they can happen at any time of the day. Relying solely on working hours detection is not enough to take action.

Q2. How Do Employees Respond To Being Monitored?

According to the American Psychological Association, 56% of monitored workers feel tense at work. However, this is not the monitoring itself, but rather the fear that their data might not be used or shared responsibly.

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