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Employee Off-Boarding – Why It is More than Just a Tick-Box Exercise?

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3 May 2022

When it comes to protecting your business, being aware of cyber security threats is the most basic yet crucial step towards effective business planning and sound risk management.
However, did you know that when identifying such risks, many organisations fail to understand that nearly a third of the threats are posed by their ex-employees?
Now, not only is this a worrying stat for companies, especially in terms of experiencing a data breach, but it also puts them at risk of being fined up to 4% of their annual revenue under the GDPR regulations.
Keeping this in mind, as a business, are you thorough enough to make sure your employee’s access to your sensitive data is deprovisioned once they leave? Are you making use of the right technologies to ensure they don’t hold any business information on their personal devices, which could remain once their employment ends?
If your answer to any of these questions was “No”, then we’d suggest you continue reading this blog. Below, we’ve explained the importance of off-boarding and the potential risks to your business from ex-employees.

Employee Off-Boarding – Why Is It Important?

While a lot of emphasis is placed on the on-boarding process, the one thing that many businesses miss out on is “employee off-boarding”.
Sure, a lot of companies might have safety measures in place, especially in the form of restrictive pacts in their contracts. But, what exactly happens when employees leave your organisation? Do you have someone specifically hired to manually go through the system and revoke all access to your files and drive?
If you answered “Yes”, then you need to know that you’re among the 92% of companies who lack an automated process. What’s more, this makes you prone to forgetfulness and human error, leaving your business data open to the world.
This is one of the major reasons why it’s important for you to ensure your data and employee access is deprovisioned on time.
For more information on how to protect your business data from breaches, get in touch with our IT experts today!

Three Risks to Your Business from Ex-Employees

 

1. Innocent Mistakes

Do your employees sync business data with their mobile devices, through solutions like Google Drive or Dropbox? Are they carrying information home through USB devices?
If this has been happening, there are chances that your employees might not be aware of security risks to your data and are perhaps doing this solely to work remotely. However, you need to make sure this doesn’t lead to any breach issues by installing the right encryption software and file sync solution.
Doing so will help you restrict your employees from installing third party solutions, whilst also wiping out business data (if any) from their personal devices.

2. Careless Behaviour

You might have come across a lot of stories of people losing their USBs filled with confidential business information or leaving their official laptops on trains.
Well, in such cases, we can’t completely blame the employees because it’s the tech that’s not up to the standard to secure the data. Having said that, companies can prevent this from happening by providing the right systems.
Put simply, you need to have technologies in place that can help wipe out portable devices from a remote location. Moreover, you must ensure that there’s proper encryption installed, so that any information on a lost hard drive or laptop is impossible to breach.
When it comes to using USBs, it’s best to avoid them altogether, especially because you can now access data without saving it on any device, thanks to today’s high speed internet services.

3. Malicious Objective

Protecting your business from departing employees can become extremely difficult if you haven’t deprovisioned their access to your systems and they’re leaving under unideal circumstances.
This means, the moment your employee leaves, you must begin the off-boarding process and revoke their access rights. To make it easier for you, install systems that automate this process. Not only will it help you monitor all the logs and catch any anomalies, but also send you an alert and block access at the same time.
This whole process is known as Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and it helps protect your organisation in an array of situations.

Redpalm – Your Go-To IT Solution Provider for All Your Security Needs

It is crucial for you to ensure that confidential data, whether it’s to do with your business or your customers, is secured at all times.
The best approach is to hire an experienced IT company like Redpalm, as we not only have the best IT experts but also provide you with the best security measures, whilst helping you stay on top of the latest technological trends.
With us as your IT support provider, you can rest assured that all the risks to your business from ex-employees and cyber criminals are taken care of.
To find out more about our IT solutions and how we can help, contact us today!

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