A guide to corporate personnel security

Press

The corporate security of any successful organisation relies on the integrity and professionalism of its employees. This guide advises organisations on issues relating to personnel security, and how they can limit their business's internal security risk.

What is personnel security?

Personnel security involves policies and procedures that are put in place to manage the risk of employees' access to company information and assets and to ensure that this access is not abused.

Why is personnel security important?

Increasingly, organisations find themselves at risk not only from external threats but also from insider activity, which can have a potentially disruptive and costly impact on a business and its activities.

Despite these threats, many organisations focus their attentions on more traditional preventative security measures.

What is my business at threat from?

Traditionally, the biggest threat an organisation faces is from employees looking to exploit their position for personal financial gain. In addition to this, many organisations find themselves at risk from corporate espionage and groups such as animal and human rights activists.

Terrorism

One of the growing corporate security risks that organisations are now exposed to is that of terrorism. In most cases of terrorism, those involved have not attained employment with the intention of exploiting information, but rather they have seized the opportunity while in the position. Usually, most people who have acquired information for the purpose of planned terrorism have done so on behalf of others, therefore it can be difficult for employers to detect.

In many cases, terrorists or those acting on behalf of terrorists will look to attain the following:

Information which will help them to carry out a terrorist attack.
Access to sites and systems which help perpetrate an attack.
Intelligence concerning what the authorities know and how to avoid detection.

How can I protect my business from these threats?

There are a number of preventative security measures which an organisation can implement to ensure that their organisation is safe from corporate security threats. These include vigilance when screening applicants prior to employment and can take the following forms:

Pre-employment checks

These verify that candidates have the necessary credentials for employment. In performing these checks, it should become clear whether applicants have concealed important information about themselves. This is important as an initial test of character, an aspect which is further covered by National Security Vetting.

National Security Vetting

This process determines an individual’s suitability to be given unrestricted access to sensitive information and assets, which could be of value to or at risk from terrorists. The process builds on the pre-employment checks and includes additional security checks, such as searches of police records.

Other checks

Depending on the role, some employers may wish to perform other checks in order to assess an individual’s integrity, reliability and character. These checks include face-to-face interviews and personality questionnaires.

Maintaining staff vigilance

In addition to the above security checks, it is vital to ensure that your staff are fully aware of issues surrounding terrorism. As an employer, it is important you maintain a healthy and active dialogue with staff in order to discuss potential threats and concerns and to highlight suspicious attitudes and behaviour from co-workers.

This guide was brought to you by corporate security specialists red24, who provide preventative security measures to organisations across the UK.