Federal Employee Acquisition and Retention – The Power of Privacy Protection

In an effort to create a more desirable workplace—and acquire and retain top talent—more and more federal agencies are looking at data privacy protection as an important part of their employee benefits plan.

Government employees are particularly vulnerable to threat actors seeking to exploit them for financial, political, or other gain. Misinformation, disinformation, along with scams are the tactics most commonly used when targeting government personnel. Examples include:

• Election influence campaigns that undermine the public’s trust in the electoral system and leave election personnel vulnerable to physical security threats.
• Threat actors impersonating military personnel and their families to scam individuals out of money.
• Romance scams and sextortion aimed at tarnishing the reputation of government officials.

Unfortunately, the success of these malicious efforts has negatively impacted the U.S. government’s ability to attract and retain talent. In order to foster a safer and more positive environment for current and prospective government employees, agencies need to play a role in protecting personal data.

Helping Employees Safeguard Their Personal Information can be a Crucial Strategy for Talent Acquisition and Retention.

A combination of factors, including the global pandemic, have led workers to rethink what’s important—with many believing that their current employer isn’t doing enough to keep them onboard. Offering a wider array of benefits is known to increase employee loyalty.

In this hyper-competitive environment, government agencies can attract talent by becoming more generous and creative with their benefits packages. Increasingly, forward-thinking employers are focusing on data privacy protection as a key.

Protecting Employees in a Digital Workplace

With cybercrime on the rise, it’s no surprise that privacy and identity protection are among the most requested employee security needs. This is especially true for agencies that offer remote and flexible work options. Protecting employees against external threats such as leaked PII is a sound decision.

Offering comprehensive protection for employees across social media, the surface, deep and dark web empowers employees with the latest proactive technology designed to safeguard their personal information.

These include:

• Removal of Private Information from public websites — ZeroFox’s PII Removal service automatically identifies removes the personal information of any employees found on “people search” (data broker) websites, continuously monitoring these sites and repeating the process if a profile reappears. You can try out the tool for free here.

• Social Media Protection — Scams and fraud have become all too common on social media. ZeroFox monitors an employee’s social accounts, alerting them to account takeovers, suspicious activities, and inappropriate content.

• Dark Web Monitoring — Cybercriminals buy and sell stolen personal data through anonymous forums in an encrypted part of the web known as the dark web. ZeroFox's Dark Web Monitoring searches all layers of the web, including the dark web, alerting employees if their personal data has been breached. This gives them valuable time to keep identity fraud from happening.

The more personal information available to threat actors, the greater the risk. As public servants responsible for maintaining visibility among their constituents, government agencies have a duty to implement protections that minimize exposure of personal data.

If current trends in employee turnover continue, the need for agencies to offer smart benefits like privacy protection services for employees will grow increasingly urgent. Offering such benefits not only sets your agency apart in the talent chase but also represents a sound business decision for any organization committed to defending against today's digital threats.