In this week’s highlights we’ll cover the weakest link in cyber security, why Amazon’s tech crisis could happen to your company and how to be clear about expectations when hiring with a vaccine mandate.

The Weakest Link In Cyber Security

The world of hybrid work demands better security.

It didn’t take long for cybercriminals to use the global pandemic to their advantage. One e-mail scam promised money from a COVID-19 “global empowerment fund” if recipients provided their bank account information. Another offered loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration for pandemic relief and included a malicious link to a spoofed SBA website that stole users’ credentials. Still another promised early access to vaccines and stole personally identifiable information. Cybersecurity company Proofpoint reported that by mid-March 2020, 80 percent of all threats it scanned each day referenced COVID-19.

“Adversaries love chaos, and this was a time of chaos,” says Emily Mossburg, Deloitte’s global cyber leader. For organizations that rushed to enable employees to work from home, “they changed the landscape of their technology footprint drastically and very rapidly, with a focus on keeping the lights on and keeping business afloat.” That sometimes meant taking shortcuts on security.

To view the entire article by SHRM click here.

Why Amazon’s HR Tech Crisis Could Happen To Your Company Too

The retail giant’s publicized challenges with paying workers and delivering benefits are not exclusive to large-scale firms, warn HR technology experts.

The New York Times’ recent exposé of retail giant Amazon’s HR technology failures in delivering benefits and payroll to a portion of its full-time employees—some on paid parental leave were marked absent at work, pay was not delivered to others for months at a time and disability benefits were withheld from others, leaving employees struggling to pay their bills—highlights the weaknesses of an overly complex technology landscape and an overtaxed HR sector.

That’s the takeaway from several HR technology experts who say the high-profile crisis could plague any organization that doesn’t give its technology and its people the attention they need. And while Amazon’s dilemma may be due to its vast scale and estimated 1.3 million employees worldwide, those experts also say even much smaller organizations face similar challenges, though they haven’t had such widely publicized hiccups.

To view the entire article featured by HR Executive click here.

Hiring With A Vaccine Mandate? Be Clear About Expectations

Setting clear expectations about COVID-19 vaccine requirements at the start of the hiring process and ensuring consistent recruitment messaging are some of the main responsibilities talent acquisition professionals should fulfill when their employer mandates vaccines for employees.

More employers are imposing vaccine mandates in anticipation of an imminent federal rule. In September, President Joe Biden directed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue an emergency temporary standard mandating that all employers with at least 100 employees ensure that their workers are either fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or produce, on a weekly basis, a negative COVID-19 test. Some major U.S. companies had already announced they would require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before the Biden administration order, and more employers continue to roll out vaccine mandates since the president’s announcement.

For those companies already struggling with hiring and retention challenges since the pandemic began, vaccine and testing requirements are a new hurdle to get over.

To view the entire article featured by SHRM click here.

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