Defining cyber security responsibilities and tasks in employment contracts

The employment contracts specify the responsibilities of the employee and the organization for cyber security.

Contracts should include e.g.:

• the employee's legal responsibilities and rights, such as those related to copyright or data protection law
• the employee's responsibility for following the instructions, e.g. related to the use of hardware and data and the classification of information
• the employee's or temporary employee's responsibility for processing information received from other companies or other parties
• measures if the employee or temporary worker violates the safety requirements of the organization
• continuing obligations after termination of employment

All employees handling confidential information should sign a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement before processing confidential information.

The agreement should include e.g.:

• clear definition of confidential information
• the expected duration of the commitment
• the measures required when the agreement is terminated
• the responsibilities and measures of the parties to prevent unauthorized disclosure of information
• ownership of information, trade secrets and intangible assets and how this relates to the protection of confidential information
• the permitted use of confidential information and the parties rights to use the information
• the right to inspect and supervise activities involving confidential information

The organization must ensure that the new employee signs an employment contract before he or she has access to any of the organization's records or data systems.

The employment contract should reflect the employee's responsibilities for information security and other roles relevant to the organization's information security.

Confidentiality and non-disclosure requirements are reviewed at regular intervals and whenever changes affecting these requirements occur.

Our organization has defined the actions to be taken in the event of a breach of confidentiality. These may include e.g. the following steps:

• investigating what data was breached and how harmful this was
• investigating the intentionality of the act
• investigating what was set as conseguence on the confidentiality agreement
• deciding whether and how to proceed (e.g. legal actions)
• deciding whether outside assistance is needed

The employees of our organization accept the general information security policy formed by the management with their signatures. The policy may refer to a number of more specific security guidelines.