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Overemployment—secret overlapping full-time jobs—creates legal, security, and productivity risks; detected via payroll, behavioral, device/SSO, and résumé checks, and because screening is only a snapshot, mitigate with clear moonlighting policies, trained managers, stronger verification, and tighter access controls.

In today’s fast-paced, interconnected business environment, background checks protect your hiring, vendor, and partnership investments by providing the information needed to make confident decisions—turning trust into a strategic advantage.

EU Member States must transpose NIS2 by 17 October 2024, following a 21-month period starting 16 January 2023. The directive tightens cybersecurity controls, including personnel vetting; noncompliance risks legal penalties, heavy fines, and reputational damage—making robust background screening essential.

In July 2024, CISA issued HR guidance on preventing insider threats; with sensitive industries, polarized politics, and geopolitical instability, European HR teams face rising risks as hostile states and cybercriminals target infrastructure and IP, pushing insider-threat prevention to the forefront.

In today’s complex, risk-laden environment, finance, healthcare, education, and transportation rely on ongoing staff screening to protect sensitive data, vulnerable people, and high-value assets—making regular background checks non-negotiable.

U.S. prosecutors charged Christina Marie Chapman with running a “laptop farm” that let North Korean IT workers use stolen identities to infiltrate 300+ U.S. firms (2020–2023), earning millions and risking sensitive access; she faces up to 97 years—highlighting a rising infiltration threat to Western, including European, companies.

As the world watches the 2024 Olympics, rigorous staff screening is essential because the event’s integrity depends on thousands behind the scenes—and history shows that lapses in vetting can have serious consequences.

As global supply chains grow more complex, procurement operations are increasingly vulnerable to staff-related security failures; this article examines a recent incident, its financial fallout, and how comprehensive background screening can mitigate similar risks.

Recent espionage cases across Europe—reaching parliamentary researchers and political aides—show hostile intelligence penetrating high offices. They expose a critical vulnerability: insufficient employee vetting; robust, ongoing background checks are essential for national and corporate security to reduce insider risk.

AI is transforming tech but also powering sophisticated fake-identity crimes—from synthetic personas to manipulated credentials—used for fraud and deception; this post surveys recent cases, emerging tactics, the societal and security implications, and how organizations can respond.

These days the push for stringent workforce screening is increasingly propelled by the adherence to cyber, physical and organisational security standards. These standards in turn are being driven by the pressures of an increasingly volatile geopolitical landscape. Critical infrastructure is being secured, and societal operational continuity is being safeguarded as potential threats are accounted for.

In 2024’s fraught hiring landscape—geopolitical tensions, cyber threats, and socioeconomic strain—HR sits on the front line, delivering a thoroughly vetted, security-aware workforce while meeting rising compliance demands (SOC 2, NIS2, ISO 27001, CER); this article explores how these standards are reshaping HR.

Workforce screening is vital for verifying candidates, but GDPR heightens HR’s responsibility to conduct only lawful, transparent, and proportionate checks to protect data and avoid breaches.

A programmer with fake credentials and fake experience. May have Asian appearance and a European passport. Domestic companies are being offered an increasing number of non-existent workers who can misuse their sensitive data once hired. Digital detectives, or so-called background check companies, now have a lot more work to do to vet candidates.

Czech start-ups and IT companies are hiring employees to work from home. However, when they thoroughly vetted a few of them, it was discovered that the job applicants presented fake European documents and were actually Chinese. One theory is industrial or military espionage.

The practice of vetting of prospective employees is slowly but surely taking root in Czech companies and official offices. Applicants are becoming aware of the fact that employers do check whether their CVs are truthful, whether they include fake academic results or certificates, or whether they actually exist and are not assuming a false identity. This does happen.

The war in Ukraine—compounded by the pandemic—has reshaped Europe’s labour market, accelerating demand for lower- and mid-skilled foreign workers and intensifying hiring across frontline and managerial roles, making verified candidate data invaluable and unverified claims increasingly costly.

Falsifying, or at least significantly "improving," one's professional resume is easy. On the internet, one can easily find guides, tips, and proven procedures on how to do it. It may seem like just a game - tweaking education, language skills, extending the validity of a certificate, omitting a few details - and besides, everyone does it, so why not? However, this "innocent game" can lead to very ugly consequences. Let's take a look at a few such cases.

A flawless résumé and interview can mask real danger: incompetence at best, deliberate harm at worst. With economic pressures rising, so do malicious hires—making rigorous screening and vigilance essential.

Cybersecurity is a hot topic. And with the new NIS2 Directive, it will be even more so. For more companies, in more sectors, with new responsibilities. And with the threat of significantly higher fines. What does recruitment have to do with it? Perhaps more than meets the eye.

What should pre-employment screening look like and what does it check? The million-dollar question even for more experienced Czech recruiters. Yet millions can flow through their fingers with every dishonest job applicant. And so while in the USA, Britain, or other Western countries up to 95% of new hires pass the screening, we in Czech Republic can only take inspiration from the US. So start with this article.

Failure to adequately screen new employees can cost employers a lot of money. And time and effort. So, in effect, more money. Who is responsible for this? The answer may be different than you expect.

Recruiting a new employee comes at a cost. In our conditions, it costs up to CZK 100,000 per head on average, and many times more for specialized positions. Want advice on how to save money when selecting new applicants? And even twice for the same money?

The key question: who can do more damage to your business? A solvent, unimpeachable colleague or a candidate saddled with insolvency and possibly even a criminal record? If you don't verify details that candidates present in CVs and interviews, you won't know until it’s too late. And with the holidays around the corner, money for some will be tighter than ever...

Great teams power great companies, but polished CVs can mislead; rigorous background checks surface inconsistencies and filter out harmful hires so you can choose genuinely competent, trustworthy people—professionally and humanly.

At the end of October 2022, a new ISO standard on information protection was released. It lists specific requirements for internal information security, cybersecurity and data protection. Among the basic requirements is job applicant verification. In other words, background check. And do you know what? You will not meet the requirements for other norms and standards without a functional new employee background check tool.

In previous articles, we discussed why applicant verification is so important. We also discussed who can be held responsible for failing to screen a prospective new colleague, as well as what we can use the background check process for in addition to HR.

Asset protection is important for any organization. Both tangible assets and completely intangible ones, especially internal information must be protected. A bank, an insurance company, a manufacturing company, an e-shop, a municipality, a county, an energy distributor, or a grocery store chain, these companies all provide important services, have to fulfill contracts or agendas imposed by law, protect their know-how, trade secrets and client data.

In many companies, the prevailing belief is that the greatest threats - thefts or frauds - come from outside, and protective mechanisms are adapted accordingly. However, practice shows that the biggest threat is from the company's own employees.

The author of the Czech heist of the century, František Procházka, got lucky. When the security agency, from which he embezzled half a billion crowns shortly after joining, hired him, they didn't thoroughly check his background. Procházka had previously been fired from his job for suspicion of stealing 23 million crowns.

Advisors Petr and Michal Moroz launched Screening Solutions Compliance Academy alongside their existing firm, reflecting a shift from box-ticking to turnkey compliance management. Demand now spans corporates, family businesses, and fast-growing startups seeking investor-grade governance—what Petr calls “knowing who you sleep with.”

The Internal Crime Detection seminar, organized on September 25, 2019 by SECURITAS CR, welcomed several dozens of security managers from large companies. The presentation of current statistics, examples from practice, and subsequent discussion with specialists reminded the participants that the area of managing security risks and so-called compliance processes is still underestimated in Czech companies.