The benefits of providing employees with an identity compromise solution

Employees find significant value in having access to an identity compromise solution, having an available remediation solution creates a better mindset for those that use it, and there are halo results that benefit others (especially employers), an Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) and Aura Identity Guard survey reveals.

More reports of identity theft than any other category

In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received over 3.2 million reports of fraud with more reports of identity theft than any other category. There is an opportunity to provide the needed support employees are asking for by giving them access to an identity compromise solution as a component of the benefits suite.

“Cybersecurity is an organizational issue,” said Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the ITRC.

“Cybersecurity is not only in the hands of an IT or security department. Every employee plays a crucial role in its company’s security network. That is why it is so critical employees are educated on cybersecurity and have the proper cyber-hygiene tools.”

The impact of COVID-19

In some cases, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of offering an identity compromise solution as an employee benefit. COVID-19 forced many employers to rethink how to conduct business when federal and state governments, under the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), issued stay-at-home orders for all nonessential businesses.

Many employers were put in an unfamiliar situation of ensuring that their employee’s home environment could sustain their work requirements. Employees had to ensure that their home computing networks, including home routers and modems, had the appropriate security settings in place.

Tessian’s report found nearly half of the people surveyed said they are forced to find workarounds for security policies while working from home to do the work required.

“The results of this study clearly indicate the value employees place on having their personal information protected – especially during this pandemic. Additionally, the results illustrate something we’ve known to be true: by protecting employees, employers are also able to protect themselves from digital malice by instilling a culture of cybersecurity across the enterprise,” said Hamed Saeed, General Manager of Aura Identity Guard.

The need for an identity compromise solution

The findings support that many employees want an identity compromise solution in some manner – from a referral to a free non-profit service, all the way to an employer-paid solution. Over 82 percent of employers surveyed said that offering access to an identity compromise solution did, indeed, provide value to their staff.

In early 2020 Aftermath survey results, 24.6 percent of victims have had issues with their employer as a result of their personal identity compromise and 27.3 percent have had challenges with their boss or coworkers.