The massive wave of layoffs in 2024 has introduced a cybersecurity threat that many business owners are overlooking: the proper offboarding of employees. Even major brands, which you'd expect to have state-of-the-art cybersecurity measures, often fail to protect themselves adequately from insider threats. This August marks a year since two disgruntled former 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.
The situation is only expected to worsen. According to NerdWallet, as of May 24, 2024, 298 U.S.-based tech companies have laid off 84,600 workers, and the numbers are climbing. This figure includes significant layoffs at giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, as well as smaller tech startups. In total, around 257,254 jobs were cut in the first quarter of 2024 alone.
Regardless of whether you need to downsize your team this year, implementing a robust offboarding process is crucial for every business, big or small. It's not just a routine administrative task; it's a vital security measure. Failing to revoke access for former employees can lead to severe business and legal consequences.
Key issues include:
- Theft of Intellectual Property: Employees can abscond with company 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 either doesn't know about or forgets to secure. 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. This information often gets sold to competitors, used by them when hired by a rival, or utilized by the former employee to become a competitor themselves. Any way you slice it, it hurts your business.
- Compliance Violations: Neglecting to revoke access privileges and remove employees from authorized user lists can result in noncompliance in heavily regulated industries. This oversight can lead to substantial fines, penalties, and even legal repercussions.
- Data Deletion: If a disgruntled employee 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. And for those thinking, "I'll sue them!"—while that might be a valid recourse, the reality is that the legal costs, time wasted on the lawsuit, efforts to recover the data, and the aggravation and distraction involved are likely to outweigh any potential damages you might win.
- Data Breach: Perhaps the most frightening scenario, unhappy employees who feel wronged could make your company the subject of the next devastating data breach headline, leading to costly lawsuits. With a single click, they could download, expose, or modify your clients' or employees' private information, financial records, or 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 evidence that some former users were not properly offboarded, and that's among those savvy enough to detect it.
So, how do 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 jobs. This should be meticulously documented to simplify the offboarding process.
- Leverage Automation: Your IT team can use automation to streamline the process of revoking 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 retains 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. If you think this can't happen to you, think again. You must be proactive in protecting 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 +44-28-7136-3363 or click here to book now.
