Safeguard Your Millennial and Gen Z Employees with High-Value Privacy and Identity Theft Protection

Millennials and Gen Zers are the digital generations. They live and work in a hyper-connected world full of identity theft and privacy compromises. While it may seem their tech-savviness would give them an edge against cybercriminals, the reality is digital dependence and a tendency to overshare puts them at higher risk than any other age group. A whopping 50% of identity fraud cases reported to the FTC are from adults under 40!

By 2025, these same folks will make up 75% of the global workforce. Their tech-literacy is a welcome addition, particularly in the age of Digital Transformation. Their privacy risks? Not so much. In the world of WFH and BYO-Devices, employers must view employee privacy as a risk to not only workforce wellbeing, but organizational security too.

Breaches aren’t just an invasion of privacy — they’re a risk factor for America’s fastest-growing crime

The result of these compromises can be identity theft, a complex crime that occurs every two seconds and takes victims hundreds of hours to resolve. Twenty percent of employees say they’ve been victims of identity theft. The stress alone harms employees — while the hundreds of hours it takes to call banks, government offices, credit bureaus and other entities only open during business hours is a major drain on productivity.

Social media use increases risk:

If your employees are active on social media, they have a 30% higher risk of becoming fraud victims. Last year, researchers discovered security vulnerabilities that exposed more than 200 million Fortnite users. In another recent incident, a data leak exposed the phone numbers linked to 419 million Facebook user accounts. These two incidents are just the tip of the data breach iceberg—a total of more than 15.1 billion records were exposed in 2019, nearly twice the current world population.

Social media risks encompass a range of privacy and reputational threats, such as:

• Account takeovers
• Scams, including fraudulent links, phishing attacks, and malware
• Posting of risky content that can damage their reputations

What employers need to know about their Millennial workforce

To help protect your employees against digital dangers, it’s essential to understand the different behaviors, attributes, and attitudes of each generation. This final post in our two-part blog series provides a behavioral and financial snapshot of your millennial and Gen Z employees. It also outlines their identity and privacy risks. This information can help you make an informed decision when selecting the best fit for identity and privacy protection as an employee benefit.

Millennials and Gen Zers are reshaping the workforce and accelerating Digital Transformation

Millennials currently make up 35% of the workforce—the largest percentage of all four generations. The oldest of Gen Zers are recent college grads starting their careers. Gen Zers will fill entry-level jobs for the next two decades, according to Employee Benefit News.

When it comes to technology, millennials and Gen Zers have much in common. “With millennials being the older siblings of Generation Z, these two generations are very closely related,” says Mark Beal, a professor at Rutgers University and author of a book on Gen Z. “Millennials witnessed the rise of technology at a young age, but Gen Z had it in their hands at ages 1, 2 and 3.” According to Beal’s research, both generations have short attention spans—12 and eight seconds, respectively—yet can work off multiple devices at once. This adds up to a workforce primed to not just embrace, but accelerate, Digital Transformation.

Cybercriminals target younger employees

Millennials and Gen Zers (people 39 and younger) account for half of identity theft cases, according to new data from the Federal Trade Commission. They widely use their mobile devices for shopping and banking; in fact, 91% of millennial smartphone owners use their devices for finances. And they frequently use their Social Security numbers in financial transactions, such as car loans and mortgages.

Though there are many similarities in how technology is used between these two generations, millennials are typified as sharing much of their personal lives online while Gen Zers appear to be more cautious. In fact, 87% of Gen Zers say they value privacy over likes on social media. However, both millennials and Gen Zers only use a few passwords to access countless apps and websites.

Hackers target younger generations because they’re online so much—55% of GenZers can’t go more than five hours without Internet access. Millennials and Gen Zers as a whole post personal information online and are more willing to share their personal data in return for personalized experiences. For example, Starbucks’ gamified mobile app uses purchase history and location data to engage customers with highly personalized content.

How to Protect Millennials and Gen Zers Need — with Identity and Privacy Protection

Digital threats evolve at dizzying speeds, so your employees need constant education about the latest phishing scams and other risks. No matter how advanced the threats, however, basic training on strong password security and overall digital hygiene are essential.

You can further safeguard your millennial and Gen Z workers with identity theft and privacy protection as an employee benefit. It’s a powerful employee benefit that your digitally savvy millennial and Gen Z employees will value.

What to look for in employee identity theft and privacy protection:

• Coverage
• Does it go beyond basic identity concerns to address root cause privacy risks —especially social media and dark web risks?
• Does it offer timely, complete threat detection and alerts so users can act quickly?
• Does it offer the 5 crucial features for employee protection?
• User Experience
• Does it deliver an engaging, intuitive user experience—even on mobile?
• Can you trust the vendor to provide exceptional service to your end users?
• Platform:
• Can the platform evolve easily to meet the latest threats?
• Is it built to meet rigorous security standards?
• Vendor:
• >Will the vendor sell your employee’s data?
• >How flexible and adaptable will the vendor be to meet your needs?

Want even more great insights? Get our HR’s Guide to Identity & Privacy Benefits for Employees of All Ages »