Unfortunately, 2024 has brought an unprecedented number of layoffs. And that shift in employees can bring a cybersecurity threat that most business owners aren’t focusing on – offboarding employees. Even large brands fail to protect themselves from insider threats adequately. Remember the two disgruntled Tesla employees going rogue after being let go two years ago? They exposed the personal information of over 75,000 people including names, addresses, phone numbers and even Social Security numbers of customers and employees.
In total, around 257,254 jobs were eliminated in the first quarter of 2024 alone. And, the issue is expected to get worse.
Having an adequate offboarding process is key for every business. It’s not just a checklist of tasks, it’s a critical security precaution. Failing to have a planned offboarding procedure can lead to serious business and legal implications later, such as:
Theft of Intellectual Property
Employees can steal with YOUR data. Your company’s files, client data and confidential information can be stored on personal devices, which can retain access to cloud-based applications like social media sites and file-sharing sites your IT department may not know about. A study by Osterman Research revealed that 69% of businesses experience data loss due to employee turnover and 87% of employees take data with them.
Compliance Violations
Failing to revoke access privileges and remove employees from user lists can register you as non-compliant in heavily regulated industries. This simple mistake can result in large fines, hefty penalties and even legal consequences.
They DELETE Everything
A disgruntled employee who feels unfairly “let go” could easily delete e-mails and critical files if they retain access. If that data isn’t backed up, you could potentially lose it ALL.
Data Breach
Unhappy employees who feel they have been wronged can make you the star of the next devastating data breach in the headlines. A simple “one click and download” could expose or modify your clients’ or employees’ private information, financial records or even trade secrets. And you could incur a costly lawsuit to go with it.
So, how’s your offboarding process?
A 2024 study by Wing revealed that one out of five organizations indicated that some of their former users were not properly offboarded, and those users were astute enough to detect it.
How DO you properly offboard an employee?
- It starts with proper onboarding. New employees should ONLY be given access to the files and programs they need to do their jobs. This should be meticulously documented to make offboarding easier.
- Leverage Automation – Your IT team can help use automation to streamline revoking access to multiple software applications simultaneously, saving time and resources while reducing the likelihood of manual errors.
- Monitor Continuously – Software can be implemented to track who is doing what and where on the company network. This can help you identify suspicious behavior by an unauthorized user and help you determine if a former employee retains access to private accounts.
It doesn’t matter how small or large your organization is, insider threats can happen. You have to be proactive in protecting your organization.
To find out if any gaps in your offboarding process expose you to theft or a data breach, contact us, Fortifi Cyber Security, a sibling company of Atlantic Technology Services, at 888-500-9111 or click here to schedule a vulnerability test.
