Offboarding: When Staff Members Leave
The Importance of Proper Offboarding
When an employee leaves, returning office keys is a given – but what about their digital keys? Many companies forget about this step and open themselves up to big security holes. While former employees return their physical devices, companies often forget about their digital access. Still having access to company systems, databases or emails is more common than you’d think. This can lead to a world of problems that you can easily avoid by just giving us a heads up.
If you have a staff member leaving or joining, let us know (ideally a few weeks in advance) so that we can make this process as smooth as possible for you!
Why It Matters
While most employees leave on good terms and wouldn’t misuse their former access, the risk is still there. If login credentials aren’t deactivated, former employees (or worse, cybercriminals) can still access company data.
A good example of this is the 2022 Uber breach, where cyber attackers used an ex-contractor’s credentials who wasn’t offboarded properly to infiltrate internal systems (Savvy Security).
The Hidden Costs
Leaving accounts active can lead to:
- Data breaches – Sensitive information falling into the wrong hands.
- Data loss – Important files being deleted, leading to company downtime.
- Unnecessary expenses – Unused software licenses and ongoing inactive accounts which is a common and avoidable cost.
Updating access permissions and closing unused accounts keeps things secure, organised, and cost-effective. Just let us know when an employee is leaving, and we’ll handle the rest!
Personal Devices: A Security Blindspot During Offboarding
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) means employees use their personal laptops, phones, or tablets for work. While this does offer flexibility, one of the biggest security gaps in offboarding comes from BYOD policies (or lack thereof).
Employees who use their own devices for work often store both personal and company data on their devices, making it challenging to ensure all business information is removed when they leave.
IT teams have limited control over personal devices, which makes it difficult to enforce proper security measures. The risk isn’t just that a former employee might misuse company data, it’s also that their personal device could be lost, stolen, or infected with malware, giving hackers a direct pathway into the company’s network.
Without a clear BYOD policy and proper offboarding, businesses risk losing track of where their data is stored and who has access to it.
For these reasons, we recommend you avoid BYOD and use company-managed devices instead.
In saying this, if your employees do use BYOD, let us know and we can help you with securing their devices.
If you have questions or would like to ensure your business is protected by implementing a seamless offboarding process, contact us today!