IT Teams Can Spy On Your Company Activities, Says PC World

In a recent article published by consumer internet and technology magazine PC World, Paul Venezia sheds light on the security risks inherit with trusting your company's entire IT infrastructure to one individual, or in many cases, a small handful of individuals. Many may consider this a common practice, on par with trusting your company's accounting duties to the company accountant or an outside accounting firm. However what many fail to take into account is that it is also common practice to double-check that an accountant's assessment is correct. But who is double-checking your IT team?

Venezia points out is that by putting your entire IT operations into the hands of only a few people you could be taking an enormous risk with your company's (and your employee's) sensitive and private information. An IT team could easily record your company's computer activities using keyloggers, gaining access to the company's private records, employee's usernames and passwords, and accessing the company's internal network. If this were the case, would you be aware that it was happening? Likely not. Venezia's advice is to hire an IT team that you trust, but also to verify to the best of your ability that they are not engaging in malicious activities.

In a recent incident cited by Venezia an IT professional from a Baltimore-based company caused over $80,000 in damages by infiltrating the company's network after having been fired. The employee used a keylogger to obtain the passwords and usernames of several high-ranking company employees, and then used this information to infiltrate the company network over 100 times, causing tens of thousands in damage, compromising the security of private company and employee information, and also to embarrass the company CEO during a powerpoint presentation.

If the company had double-checked their network with an anti keylogger like SpyReveal, the rouge employee's efforts may have been thwarted long before he had gained access to sensitive company information, and the company would likely have avoided the $80,000 cost of upgrading their company's security. Even if you trust your IT team it is never safe to leave your company's most important information in the hands of a few individuals, and to keep your company information safe it is extremely important to run regular anti keylogging scans across your company's network.