The numbers are shocking. According to the 2019 The State of Work Report, employees spend just 40% of their workday on primary tasks. A Gallup poll showed that disengaged employees cost companies in the United States between $450 and $550 billion per year, and highly engaged teams are 21% more profitable than others. So how can an organization find out what employees are doing when they are on the clock so they can take steps to increase engagement and boost productivity?

The recent IBM 2019 Cost of Data Breach survey found that the cost of a data breach had risen 12% over the past 5 years to $3.92 million on average. While 51% of the data breach attacks were attributed to malicious or criminal actors, a stunning 24% of the breaches were caused by negligent employees or contractors. The report also notesed that the 51% of the criminal actors included, “malware infections, criminal insiders, phishing/social engineering and SQL injection.”

The government sector and all of the agencies that make up this powerful ecosystem play an integral role in global safety and security. Whether considering the U.S. or other countries around the world, cybersecurity tends to be a core factor in national security affairs. As countries increasingly rely on technology to fulfill basic living needs such as getting access to clean water, electricity, and transportation, the risks drastically expand.

Data breaches happen daily, many of which go undetected for months and even years. In this environment, having visibility into assets across the enterprise is paramount. This critical security need is termed “enterprise visibility” and has become a household name across the industry. The concept can take on a variety of meanings depending on the stakeholder you may be dealing with across the enterprise.

Workplace productivity is directly related to company profitability. Employers are seeking more and more ways to cut waste – including wasteful activities that eat into productivity. Many companies would immediately agree that playing video games, spending excessive time on social media and streaming videos are blatant violations of workplace acceptable use policies.

Employees know that too much work and not enough play leads to exhaustion and burnout. The World Health Organization now officially recognizes ‘occupational burnout” as a cause of mental and physical health problems in the workplace.

Level Setting on Tech Companies Let’s start by defining what a technology company is. Think hardware, software, and technology service companies who are creating a form of technology that others can purchase and utilize. Some of the biggest and most popular players in this space that may come to mind include Facebook, Microsoft, IBM and Google. These companies provide pure technology to their consumers for a price. Though common, the sector is not limited to these types of companies either.

Ransomware has been a hot topic within the cyber security industry for quite some time now. It’s an often-lucrative cyber-attack method with an attractive return on investment. The motivation behind Ransomware attacks tends to be primarily financial, as cyber criminals can’t resist such easy opportunities to achieve their malicious goals. Ransomware is effective given that almost every individual or organization owns or has access to digital assets which are valuable to them.

Organizations usually focus on cyber threats which are external in origin. These include anti-malware, external firewalls, DDoS attack mitigation, external data loss prevention, and the list goes on. That's great, external cyber attacks are very common so it's vital to protect your networks from unauthorized access and malicious penetration. The internet and unauthorized physical access to your facilities will always be risks and they must be monitored and managed.

The author G.K. Chesterton noted that “there is a lot of difference between listening and hearing.” Of the four communication skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – we learn listening first, but as time goes on many of us seem to lose interest in truly listening to what others have to say. Leaders would do well to work on listening to inspire workers and increase productivity.