The significant wave of layoffs in 2024 has introduced a cybersecurity threat that many business owners are overlooking: the offboarding of employees. Even major brands, which are expected to have robust cybersecurity systems, processes, and procedures, often fail to adequately protect against insider threats. This August marks one year since two disgruntled Tesla employees, after being terminated, exposed the personal information—including names, addresses, phone numbers, and Social Security numbers—of over 75,000 individuals, including employees.
Unfortunately, this issue is anticipated to worsen. According to NerdWallet, as of May 24, 2024, 298 U.S.-based tech companies have laid off 84,600 workers, with numbers still rising. This includes significant layoffs at major companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, as well as smaller tech start-ups. In total, approximately 257,254 jobs were eliminated in the first quarter of 2024 alone.
Regardless of whether you need to downsize your team this year, having a proper offboarding process is essential for every business, large or small. It's more than a routine administrative task; it's a critical security measure. Failing to revoke access for former employees can lead to serious business and legal repercussions.
Some of the issues include:
- Theft of Intellectual Property: Employees can take your company's files, client data, and confidential information stored on personal devices. They may also retain access to cloud-based applications like social media sites and file-sharing services (e.g., Dropbox or OneDrive) that your IT department might overlook or forget to update passwords for. A study by Osterman Research found that 69% of businesses experience data loss due to employee turnover, and 87% of departing employees take data with them. Often, this information is sold to competitors, used by them when hired by the competition, or utilized by the former employee to become a competitor. In any scenario, it harms your business.
- Compliance Violations: Failing to revoke access privileges and remove employees from authorized user lists can render you noncompliant in heavily regulated industries. This oversight can result in large fines, hefty penalties, and, in some cases, legal consequences.
- Data Deletion: If an employee feels unfairly laid off and retains access to their accounts, they could delete all their emails and any critical files they can access. Without proper backups, this data could be lost forever. While you might consider suing them, the reality is that the legal costs, time lost, and the effort to recover the data often outweigh any potential damages you might be awarded.
- Data Breach: This is perhaps the most alarming threat. Disgruntled employees who feel wronged could make you the subject of the next major data breach headline, leading to costly lawsuits. With just one click, they could download, expose, or modify your clients' or employees' private information, financial records, or even trade secrets.
Do you have an airtight offboarding process to mitigate these risks? Chances are you don't. A 2024 study by Wing revealed that one in five organizations has indications that some former users were not properly offboarded, and these are the organizations that were vigilant enough to detect it.
How can you properly offboard an employee?
- Implement the Principle of Least Privilege: Effective offboarding begins with proper onboarding. New employees should only have access to the files and programs necessary for their roles. This should be meticulously documented to simplify the offboarding process.
- Leverage Automation: Your IT team can use automation to streamline the revocation of access to multiple software applications simultaneously, saving time and resources while reducing the likelihood of manual errors.
- Implement Continuous Monitoring: Utilize software that tracks user activity on the company network. This can help identify suspicious behavior by unauthorized users and determine if a former employee still has access to private accounts.
These are just a few ways your IT team can enhance your offboarding process to make it more efficient and secure.
Insider threats can be devastating, and if you think it can't happen to you, think again. Proactive measures are essential to protect your organization.
To find out if any gaps in your offboarding process expose you to theft or a data breach, our team will do a FREE consult to help you resolve it. Call us at 410-535-4332 or click here to book now.
