The massive wave of layoffs in 2024 brings a cybersecurity threat that many business owners overlook: offboarding employees. Even large, well-known brands with advanced cybersecurity systems often fail to protect themselves adequately from insider threats. For instance, last August marked a year since two disgruntled Tesla employees, after being let go, exposed the personal information of over 75,000 people, including names, addresses, phone numbers, and Social Security numbers.

The issue is expected to worsen. According to NerdWallet, as of May 24, 2024, 298 US-based tech companies have laid off 84,600 workers. This includes major layoffs at companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, as well as smaller tech start-ups. 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. Offboarding is 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.

Some potential issues include:

• Theft of Intellectual Property: Employees can steal your company’s files, client data, and confidential information stored on personal devices. They may also retain access to cloud-based applications, such as social media sites and file-sharing platforms (e.g., Dropbox, OneDrive), that your IT department might overlook. 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. This information can be sold to competitors, used by them when hired by a competitor, or used by the former employee to become a competitor themselves.
• Compliance Violations: Failing to revoke access privileges and remove employees from authorized user lists can render you noncompliant in heavily regulated industries. This simple mistake can result in large fines, hefty penalties, and legal consequences.
• 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, it will be lost forever.
• Data Breach: This could be the most terrifying of all. Unhappy employees who feel wronged can make your company the next headline for a devastating data breach, leading to costly lawsuits. A single click can result in downloading, exposing, or modifying your clients’ or employees’ private information, financial records, or trade secrets.

Do you have an airtight offboarding process to mitigate these risks? Chances are, you don’t. A 2024 study by Wing revealed that one out of five organizations has indications that some former users were not properly offboarded. These are the organizations that were astute enough to detect it.

How do you properly offboard an employee?

• 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.
• Leverage Automation: Your IT team can use automation to streamline the process of revoking access to multiple software applications simultaneously, saving time and resources while reducing the likelihood of manual errors.
• Implement Continuous Monitoring: You can 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 improve your offboarding process to make it more efficient and secure. 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 offers a free, in-depth risk assessment to help you resolve it. Call us at 214-550-0550 or click here to book now.