The Hidden Cybersecurity Threat of Layoffs: Protect Your Business with Proper Offboarding

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The massive wave of layoffs in 2024 brings a cybersecurity threat that most business owners aren’t focusing on: offboarding employees. Even major brands with top-tier cybersecurity systems, processes, and procedures in place can fail to adequately protect themselves from insider threats. This August marks a year since two disgruntled Tesla employees went rogue after being let go and exposed the personal information. Including names, addresses, phone numbers, and Social Security numbers—of over 75,000 people, including employees.

The Growing Concern

And the issue is expected to get worse. 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 companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, as well as smaller tech startups. 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.

Potential Risks of Poor Offboarding

  1. Theft of Intellectual Property: Employees can sneak away 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 services (e.g., Dropbox, OneDrive) that your IT department doesn’t know about or forgets to change the password to. A study by Osterman Research revealed that 69% of businesses experience data loss due to employee turnover, and 87% of employees who leave take data with them.
  2. Compliance Violations: Failing to revoke access privileges and remove employees from authorized user lists can result in noncompliance in heavily regulated industries. This simple mistake can lead to large fines, hefty penalties, and, in some cases, legal consequences.
  3. 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. Legal action might be an option, but the costs, time, and aggravation of dealing with it far outweigh any potential compensation.
  4. Data Breach: Unhappy employees can make you the star of the next devastating data breach headline. They could expose or modify your clients’ or employees’ private information, financial records, or trade secrets, leading to costly lawsuits and reputational damage.

Strengthening Your Offboarding Process

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 indicated that some former users were not properly offboarded.

How to Properly Offboard an Employee

  1. 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.
  2. Leverage Automation: Use automation to streamline revoking access to multiple software applications simultaneously. This saves time and resources while reducing the likelihood of manual errors.
  3. Implement Continuous Monitoring: Use software that tracks who is doing what and where on the company network. This can help 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.

Take Action to Protect Your Business

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 conduct a free, in-depth risk assessment to help you resolve it.

Contact Us Today

Call us at 877-807-1332 or click here to book your assessment now.