Recently a report was released quite disturbing that reveals that Google laid off around 80 employees for data misuse between 2018 and 2020, which includes the theft or leakage of company information and access to user or employee data in violation of its policies.
In this report It is mentioned that most of the accusations (86%) relate to mismanagement of private information, such as transferring internal files to external parties, while 10% relates to inappropriate use of systems, including accessing user or employee data or helping others to access this data.
The document that relates the actions of these employees, It also provides concrete figures on how the online search giant's own employees are taking advantage of their position to steal, leak or abuse the data they may have access to.
A meticulous investigation of the events made it possible to identify the employees who participated in this plot. The document says that only in 2020, Google laid off 36 employees over security concerns. The previous two years also saw their share of security incidents.
The person who provided the document said that Google laid off 26 people in 2019 and 18 in 2018 due to security incidents. The document specifies that layoffs are not the only way Google is handling these situations; it is mentioned that the company sometimes distributes warnings.
It is said that about 86% of all accusationss related to security against employees refer to the mismanagement of confidential information, such as the transfer of inside information to third parties. Ten percent of all allegations in 2020 are said to be misuse of systems or platforms that host users' personal data, including accessing user or employee data in violation of Google's own policies.
In 2019, that figure accounted for 13% of all security claims. The document also denounces helping others to access this data, or the modification or deletion of user or employee data.
“The aforementioned cases mainly refer to inappropriate access or misuse of company data or confidential and confidential intellectual property. With respect to user data, we strictly limit employee access through a series of industry-leading security measures. "
“We have in particular: limiting access to user data to what is necessary, requiring a justification for accessing that data, a multi-step review before access to confidential data is granted and monitoring anomalies and access violations. Furthermore, the number of violations, whether deliberate or inadvertent, is consistently low. Every employee receives annual training, we investigate all allegations and violations lead to corrective actions including termination, ”he continued.
"We are transparent in publishing the number and results of our investigations to our employees and we have also implemented strict processes that allow us to protect customer and user data against any internal or external threat," the spokesperson concluded. Additionally, insider trading is a problem and this trend tends to spread throughout the tech industry. Cases have already been discovered in recent years on Facebook, Snapchat, etc., and MySpace, where employees have sometimes used their access to track or spy on users.
A Google spokesperson said:
"The instances referred to are primarily related to inappropriate access or misuse of private and confidential corporate information or IP."
“The number of violations, whether deliberate or inadvertent, is consistently low. All employees are trained annually, we investigate all allegations and violations lead to corrective action including termination, and we have strict processes in place to protect customer and user data from any internal or external threats.
Source: https://www.vice.com