What is Shoulder Surfing? Sometimes known as tailgating, shoulder surfing is the practice of spying on a user of an electronic device in order to obtain their data or passwords etc. This can be both an online and offline activity, so it’s important to be vigilant to prevent attacks. In this short article, this cyber aware tip will show you everything you need to know about this threat.

Shoulder surfing is often carried out by someone who does not work for your business, and may be disguised as a visitor, or someone in workplace uniform. Criminals know that it’s hard for an employee to question the authority of a visitor, particularly if your business is large with part time staff and frequent visitors and delivery drop offs. All it takes is an employee to hold the door open for an unknown person and they have access to your entire building, just like that.

You don’t know what a fraudster’s intentions might be by accessing your place of work. They may walk out with a crucial piece of hardware brimming with client data, access to intellectual property or take passwords to your internal systems ready to be taken advantage of later.

How to prevent shoulder surfing…

• Create a policy with easy and clear guidelines for staff to follow.
• Educate staff about the risks so should an unauthorised person get into your business, they know what needs to be done.
• Pay attention to who is coming inside the building with you – if they’re unfamiliar, you should greet them, ask what they’re here for and escort them to the correct location/person.
• Report suspicious activity to the right person. If you see someone get through security measures who shouldn’t have – bring attention to them.
• You are only as strong as your weakest link, so ensure that your whole team understands the risks involved & get a process into place to prevent these attacks from happening.

Download your poster now

We have created posters to help keep your workforce educated, click here to download the one about Shoulder Surfers. We recommend this is printed on A3 in full colour and displayed across the workplace. If you would like a complete set of the posters delivered by Royal mail please fill out the contact form here and use the subject POSTERS.