The massive wave of layoffs in 2024 has introduced a cybersecurity threat that many business owners are overlooking: the offboarding of employees. Even prominent brands, which you would expect to have state-of-the-art cybersecurity systems, processes, and procedures, often fail to adequately protect themselves from insider threats. This August marks a year since two disgruntled Tesla employees, after being let go, exposed personal information—including names, addresses, phone numbers, and Social Security numbers—of over 75,000 people, including employees.
Unfortunately, this issue is expected to worsen. According to NerdWallet, as of May 24, 2024, 298 US-based tech companies have laid off 84,600 workers and counting. This includes major layoffs at big companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, as well as smaller tech start-ups. In total, around 257,254 jobs were eliminated in the first quarter of 2024 alone.
Whether or not you'll need to downsize your team this year, having a proper offboarding process in place is essential for every business, big or small. It's more than a routine administrative task—it's a critical security precaution. Failing to revoke access for former employees can lead to serious business and legal implications later.
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 (such as Dropbox or 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 in their new employment, or utilized to start competing ventures.
- Compliance Violations: Failing to revoke access privileges and remove employees from authorized user lists can render you noncompliant in heavily regulated industries. This simple 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 easily delete all their emails and any critical files they can access. If that data isn't backed up, you will lose it all. While you might consider suing them, the legal costs, time wasted on the lawsuit, and the effort to recover the data can outweigh any potential damages you might be awarded.
- Data Breach: This could be the most terrifying of all. Unhappy employees who feel wronged can make you the star of the next devastating data breach headline and incur a costly lawsuit. It could be as simple as making one click to download, expose, or modify your clients' or employees' private information, financial records, or even trade secrets.
Do you have an airtight offboarding process to curb 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 those are the companies astute enough to detect it.
How do you properly offboard an employee?
- Implement the Principle of Least Privilege: Successful offboarding 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 use automation to streamline revoking access to multiple software applications simultaneously, saving time and resources while reducing the likelihood of manual errors.
- Implement Continuous Monitoring: You can deploy software that tracks who is doing what and where on the company network. This can help you identify suspicious behavior by an unauthorized user and determine if a former employee retains access to private accounts.
These are just a few ways your IT team can help improve 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. 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, in-depth risk assessment to help you resolve it. Call us at 702-970-3472 or click here to book now.
