Employees Who Quit Take Your Security With Them

In a recent survey of 379 former employees by Intermedia and Osterman Research  found that 89% of them still had access to their former employers Salesforce, PayPal, email, SharePoint, Facebook, and other accounts, and 60% of them were not asked for their Internet logins when they quit, 45% retained access to confidential employer data, and 49% logged in to company accounts after leaving their employer.

And who knows what went out the door on that USB flash drive…

This points to a critical gap in company security policy.  When an employee resigns, it it important to cancel their login credentials to the network, and resources such as VPNs and servers, and cloud based services that the employer may be using to run their business.  It is also important to avoid using a single “shared” password that multiple employees use, as it becomes difficult or impossible to change these passwords when one employee leaves the firm.

This is an area where having a written policy that details what company assets need to be returned (keys, laptop, phone, etc.) and what user credentials need to be disabled, retired, or at least have the password changed.

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About the Author:

I am a cybersecurity and IT instructor, cybersecurity analyst, pen-tester, trainer, and speaker. I am an owner of the WyzCo Group Inc. In addition to consulting on security products and services, I also conduct security audits, compliance audits, vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. I also teach Cybersecurity Awareness Training classes. I work as an information technology and cybersecurity instructor for several training and certification organizations. I have worked in corporate, military, government, and workforce development training environments I am a frequent speaker at professional conferences such as the Minnesota Bloggers Conference, Secure360 Security Conference in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, the (ISC)2 World Congress 2016, and the ISSA International Conference 2017, and many local community organizations, including Chambers of Commerce, SCORE, and several school districts. I have been blogging on cybersecurity since 2006 at http://wyzguyscybersecurity.com

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