The significant wave of layoffs in 2024 has introduced a cybersecurity threat that many business owners are overlooking—offboarding employees. Even prominent brands, which one would expect to have robust cybersecurity systems, processes, and procedures in place, often fail to adequately protect themselves from insider threats. This August marks a year since two disgruntled Tesla employees, after being let go, exposed the personal information—including names, addresses, phone numbers, and Social Security numbers—of over 75,000 individuals, including employees.
The situation is anticipated to worsen. According to NerdWallet, as of May 24, 2024, 298 US-based tech companies have laid off 84,600 workers, with the numbers continuing to rise. 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, big or small. It is more than a routine administrative task—it's a critical security measure. Failing to revoke access for former employees can lead to severe business and legal implications.
Some of these issues include:
- Theft of Intellectual Property: Employees can abscond with 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 platforms (e.g., Dropbox, OneDrive) that your IT department might overlook or forget to update passwords for. A study by Osterman Research revealed that 69% of businesses experience data loss due to employee turnover, and 87% of departing employees take data with them. This information is often sold to competitors, used when they join a competitor, or leveraged to start their own competing business, ultimately harming you.
- Compliance Violations: Not revoking access privileges and removing employees from authorized user lists can render you noncompliant in heavily regulated industries. This oversight can result in substantial fines, penalties, and legal consequences.
- Data Deletion: If an employee feels unjustly 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.
- Data Breach: Perhaps the most alarming risk, disgruntled employees who feel wronged can make you the subject of the next major data breach headline, leading to costly lawsuits. With a single click, they could expose, modify, or download 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 out of five organizations has indications that some of their 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 starts with proper onboarding. New employees should only be given 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 you 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, and if you think this can't happen to you, think again. Proactively protecting your organization is essential.
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 813-689-1950 or click here to book now.
