Beyond Identity, a company that specializes in identity management, found in a recent survey that almost 1 in 4 employees maintained access to accounts and data from past jobs. Combining that with the 41% of former staff members that admitted to sharing account credentials, could mean your organization is at an elevated risk of data breach.
Another Identity Access Management company, OneLogin, polled 500 IT managers to learn more about how they offboard employees and add/remove access permissions. Here is what they found:
What can be done to avoid access after offboarding?
Any employee leaving the company can turn into a liability risk, so timing is everything. The termination procedure will vary from company to company and even from employee to employee. Tenure, position held and system access levels will make every termination unique. However, some actions should be universal, and timing is key. It is crucial to have an offboarding process policy that can be followed when it is time for an employee to move on from the organization.
Below is a list to consider while preparing for an employee’s departure or building an offboarding policy.
- Involve your IT department as soon as possible
- Schedule an exit interview
- Plan ahead. Be ready to disable access when appropriate
- When ready, disable access to the network, email, and third-party applications
- Consider blocking email sign in and blocking external email forwarding
- Disable and change all system passwords and Windows Domain accounts
- Remove Remote/VPN access
- Collect all company owned tech assets. Cell phones, laptops and removable storage devices
- Collect all intellectual property such as physical files that could business or customer data
- Consider anything unique to their position. For example, if the employee worked in the marketing department, remove access to your company’s LinkedIn or Facebook pages
Involving you IT department early is paramount for a successful transition. This will give ample time for IT staff and the employee’s manager to discuss how to handle and time the offboarding. This collaboration between IT and Management will help your organization protect company data and prevent unintended access.
