How to Properly Off-board Employees from an IT Security Perspective

Security was the hot topic of 2021. With ransomware attacks showing no signs of slowing in 2022, it’s important that your organization is doing everything they can to protect themselves. 

It may sound strange, but the first step to properly off-board an employee is to make sure they are on-boarded correctly in the first place. Make sure you are documenting everything a new employee is gaining access to (networks, account logins, shared passwords, etc.), and any company devices they are loaned. This will make the off-boarding process much more straightforward.  

Follow these 5 steps to properly off-board employees from a security perspective:  

  1. Collect all company property (devices, USBS, key FOBs, etc).
  2. Disable access to files immediately upon end of employment.
  3. Change all of the employee’s credentials and logins.
  4. Remote wipe any employee devices and hardware.
  5. Change any shared passwords within your organization (please note: we do not recommend having shared passwords, but in the event your organization does, be sure these are changed when an individual is off-boarded).

 
What are the risks of failing to properly off-board? We’re so glad you asked.  

Proper off-boarding is a critical component of a robust and prevention-focused security strategy. It’s an unfortunate truth that not all employees leave their organization on the best of terms. It’s not uncommon that a disgruntled former employee will steal proprietary company data or transfer data to a USB or personal email account. Maintaining a comprehensive off-boarding process will help eliminate unnecessary risk to your organization from former employees. In many cases, the greatest security risk to an organization are those individuals (i.e. former employees) that maintain inside access after off-boarding. 

 
At Clarity Technology Group, we help businesses of all sizes and scopes create and maintain an off-boarding process that functions to protect their organization. If you are interested in speaking to a member of our team for help in this area, please get in touch with us here.  

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