Cyber technology has opened the door for a lot of workpace deviance. The first one that comes to my mind is insider threats. The list of government employees that used their access to information to commit espionage and damage national security is quite long. One disgruntled employee with access to TB’s of proprietary data can do millions of dollars worth of damage to a company. Many times the warning signs of an insider threat are rather ambiguous – possibly benign. And employers have a certain amount of trust for their workers, especially ones with access to high level information stored within an organization. So, once an insider threat acts out on their goals, the damage may have already been done. And training your employees against an insider threat can be difficult. A supervisor is essentially showing you how to rat on your fellow workers if they suspect something. Often this is a reason many insider threats go unreported. The response is always “Well, I didn’t think it was my business.” or “I don’t know, I guess I didn’t want to be seen as a nosey snitch.” In my job in the Navy, I’ve dealt with this numerous times from individuals who reported an insider threat.
Another deviance is cyber bullying or harassment. Many offices now use e-mail, MS Teams, or some sort of instant messaging service to do a majority of their business. If an employee wishes to possibly haze a new worker or a male harass a new female employee, it is easier now than ever before. I dealt with this while I was stationed at a command near Washington D.C. As assistant to the preliminary inquiry, I had to read through about 20 pages of instant messages of a man harassing a female employee. While she tried to ignore him, she could not turn off e-mail or the IM service. So, she just received message after message.