In the US alone, cybercrime is expected to cost businesses a whopping $452 billion by the time 2024 draws to a close. With hacking attempts on the rise across practically every industry, the businesses of today face a serious uphill battle when it comes to keeping their data safe and complying with the various regulatory frameworks. Yet, at the same time, there is a huge pressure to digitize business operations in order to stay competitive and bring in the massive efficiency gains that modern technology promises. It's a difficult balancing act.
But perhaps there is no business function out there that faces more of a risk than HR. What was once considered a basic admin operation, HR has become increasingly attractive to hackers due to the data that these teams (and tech) now hold. Personally identifiable information, household details, financial and medical records - pretty much everything a cybercriminal needs to carry out identity fraud or hold a company hostage.
The New HR Imperative: Security as the Bedrock
Given how valuable this data is and how imperative it is to maintain business operations, HR departments must take the time to choose their software providers wisely. It's no longer enough to just focus on things like raw functionality or user friendliness. Instead, security must be a top priority. Yes, companies need to find a HR platform that can streamline processes and help bring efficiency gains - but more importantly, they must also find a provider that will protect their employee data and not bring a potential weak point into their infrastructure.
Enter HiBob, a HR tech leader that has baked data security right into the fabric of its company DNA. In this guide, we're going to take a look at some of the specific challenges that HiBob faces in terms of cybersecurity. We will unpack each potential HiBob vulnerability and then reveal how the HR platform proactively addresses them to ensure the protection of all its client's data.
The Minefield Facing HR Tech
Okay, for us to fully appreciate how sophisticated HiBob's defenses and security measures actually are, it's important that we first get the lay of the land when it comes to the threats that these HR tech platforms are facing.
- Unauthorized Access - First off, hackers are always looking for ways to break into systems and steal data. They may try phishing employees with fake login pages, planting malware, or using social engineering to trick people into giving up passwords. Of course, there are the more overt hacking techniques that try to infiltrate compromised systems too.
- Data Breaches - It doesn't matter if a leak is accidental or if it's been caused by a malicious actor - it is still a major issue. Yet, the unfortunate reality is that there are now a number of ways for bad actors to infiltrate systems and cause damage. Whether it's ransomware, man in the middle attacks, or just a simple phishing scam, these threats are everywhere and they are always evolving.
- Third-Party Risks - HR platforms frequently integrate with third-party platforms too. So if one of those vendors has weak security controls, it could open up a backdoor into their systems.
- Insider Threats - Let's not forget about potential insider threats. Whether it's a disgruntled employee out for revenge or just someone being careless - workers pose a security risk as well.
HiBob's Multi-Layered Defense Strategy
So we've covered the major threats facing platforms like HiBob. Now let's talk about how they actually defend against those risks. HiBob takes security extremely seriously - building layers of protection into every aspect of their platform.
Technical Safeguards: The Foundation of Data Protection
HiBob takes platform security extremely seriously, building layers of protection into every aspect of their systems. Let's break down some of their key defenses:
- Encryption - HiBob leverages strong encryption so even if hackers access data, it just looks like gibberish without the proper keys to decipher it. This helps safeguard sensitive information.
- Firewalls & monitoring - They shield their networks behind firewalls to block intrusions. They also use AI to continuously monitor activity and rapidly detect potential threats.
- **Secure software development ** - Security is baked into HiBob's whole development process. They analyze code for vulnerabilities and ensure frameworks meet stringent standards.
- Simulated attacks - HiBob proactively uncovers weaknesses by running constant simulated attacks to pinpoint security gaps.
- Bug bounties - They even pay external hackers to find and report bugs through bounty programs, crowdsourcing efforts to reinforce defense
Operational Safeguards: People and Processes
No matter how strong your technical defenses are, all it takes is one slip or one absent-minded moment of an employee clicking on a suspicious link, to unravel it all. It's for this reason that HiBob heavily invests into operational procedures To help back up those strong technical protections. This includes putting solid processes and policies in place while also trying to maintain and nurture a culture that's competent to technical controls.
- **Access controls ** - HiBob governs permissions with its data on a strictly need to know basis. This means that only the individuals that need to access the data will be able to do so. This drastically limits the blast radius if any account does get compromised.
- Awareness training - Security training is a big part of the onboarding process for all employees. But just to make sure that everyone is kept up to speed, all employees must undergo annual refreshes to ensure they are clued up on the later cybersecurity threats and how to handle them.
- Incident response - Even if you have the most robust systems in place, accidents can (and will) still happen. HiBob is ready for when this does occur with a dedicated 24/7 incident response team, playbooks of scenarios, and constant fire drills that help employees understand how to contain, communicate, and recover from potential attacks swiftly.
Compliance and Governance: Setting the Standard
HiBob has obtained a number of certifications that require extensive auditor vetting. Not only do these auditors assess their security posture, but they take a look at their privacy programs and entire network infrastructure as a whole - not just a surface glance.
- ISO 27001/27018 - Validates their information security practices meet rigorous international standards.
- **SOC 2 Type II ** - Confirms strong controls for data security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
By jumping through these hoops and going to the extra effort of validating their cybersecurity practices externally, HiBob's customers and the employees that they serve can have confidence in knowing that the platform takes security seriously. With this in mind, HiBob makes governance and compliance key pillars of their approach rather than just nice-to-have badges.
Final Word
The main takeaway here is that HiBob simply doesn't just sit back and cross their fingers, hoping that a single firewall is going to help protect their platform and their data. Instead, they employ a full defense in depth strategy. The HR leader realizes that there is no such thing as being over prepared when it comes to cybersecurity. Hacking techniques are growing more sophisticated by the day and businesses need to stay one step ahead.
Through their diligence and proactiveness when it comes to embedding security in their people, processes, and technology at every layer, HiBob stands as a shining example of how to do data security right.