One of my favorite lines when I conduct employee education about data privacy and cybersecurity is “Keep Your Day Job.” The context of the comment is when I tell audiences about the dumb moves of employees who think they can steal their company’s data and use it, sell it or do nefarious things with it without getting caught.

Why do employees continue to think that their employers don’t monitor their email usage? It is a basic premise that your company will monitor your email traffic when you are terminated or resign. So when I say “Keep Your Day Job” I mean, “Don’t send company data to your private email account or disclose it or steal it or sell it.”

It continues to amaze me how often this happens. And it puts both the company and the employee in a precarious position.

Take the former litigation associate of a major law firm who was arrested late last week on an extortion charge. Although the associate was smart enough to go to law school, he wasn’t very smart in his scheme.

This associate threatened the law firm that he would release confidential and sensitive data that he stole from his superior’s email account unless the firm paid him  $210,000 and give him a piece of art.

What? Really? How did he not think he would get caught?

The tip for this week: Keep Your Day Job. Don’t steal or disclose your company’s data. Don’t sell it or extort your company. Chances are you will get caught and no longer have a job or be employable.

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