What would be the MOST APPROPRIATE way for Building Block to handle the situation with the employee from Italy?

SCENARIO

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Building Block Inc. is a multinational company, headquartered in Chicago with offices throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe (including Germany, Italy, France and Portugal). Last year the company was the victim of a phishing attack that resulted in a significant data breach. The executive board, in coordination with the general manager, their Privacy Office and the Information Security team, resolved to adopt additional security measures. These included training awareness programs, a cybersecurity audit, and use of a new software tool called SecurityScan, which scans employees’ computers to see if they have software that is no longer being supported by a vendor and therefore not getting security updates. However, this software also provides other features, including the monitoring of employees’ computers.

Since these measures would potentially impact employees, Building Block’s Privacy Office decided to issue a general notice to all employees indicating that the company will implement a series of initiatives to enhance information security and prevent future data breaches.

After the implementation of these measures, server performance decreased. The general manager instructed the Security team on how to use SecurityScan to monitor employees’ computers activity and their location. During these activities, the Information Security team discovered that one employee from Italy was daily connecting to a video library of movies, and another one from Germany worked remotely without authorization. The Security team reported these incidents to the Privacy Office and the general manager. In their report, the team concluded that the employee from Italy was the reason why the server performance decreased.

Due to the seriousness of these infringements, the company decided to apply disciplinary measures to both employees, since the security and privacy policy of the company prohibited employees from installing software on the company’s computers, and from working remotely without authorization.

What would be the MOST APPROPRIATE way for Building Block to handle the situation with the employee from Italy?
A . Since the GDPR does not apply to this situation, the company would be entitled to apply any disciplinary measure authorized under Italian labor law.
B . Since the employee was the cause of a serious risk for the server performance and their data, the company would be entitled to apply disciplinary measures to this employee, including fair dismissal.
C . Since the employee was not informed that the security measures would be used for other purposes such as monitoring, the company could face difficulties in applying any disciplinary measures to this employee.
D . Since this was a serious infringement, but the employee was not appropriately informed about the consequences the new security measures, the company would be entitled to apply some disciplinary measures, but not dismissal.

View Answer

Answer: C