We all know about the threat of threat actors trying to access our corporate data. But with the rise of remote work, keeping an eye on employees during offboarding is an important area to watch, as well.
In many cases, employees can still access sensitive data well after they leave the job. This is even more noticeable when they logged in to corporate networks or tools every day while working at home. To prevent these insider threats, a thorough offboarding process is critical.
What Are the Risks?
You’re probably familiar with best practices for digital basics like passwords and general data protection. But sometimes, the most insidious issues arise from those processes we tend to forget about or for which we find ourselves unprepared. These risks can come from either employees in the office or remote workers.
The biggest risk brought about by inadequate offboarding is employees with access to sensitive data they should no longer be able to reach. Unhappy employees (or ex-employees) can do major damage. What if they take your confidential corporate data or intellectual property and sell it on the dark web? How would that affect your company’s brand or customer trust?
What if an employee still has access to servers or apps they could easily take down, resulting in a denial-of-service attack? You may catch on quickly, but every minute counts. What if an employee has access to personally identifiable information about your customers and other employees and chooses to exploit that data?
Especially in today’s stressful times, people’s behavior can be erratic. Getting your offboarding right is a big step in preventing these types of problems.
