SHOCK: 66% of Fired Employees Able to Access Their Former Company’s Cloud Data

Every business executive knows the struggle of employee turnover. Your employees might come and go, but your data is one thing that you can’t afford to lose from your business. You might feel that you can trust all of the employees who have put in years of effort to ensure your organization stays afloat, but you may be surprised to learn that a significant number of them will probably leave your company with at least some corporate data.

As reported by SailPoint, at least a quarter of your employees will take copies of corporate data with them when they leave your organization. This survey dealt specifically with cloud computing usage, and was issued to around 3,000 employees worldwide. As explained by SailPoint president Kevin Cunningham, “The survey results are an eye-opener of how cloud applications have made it easy for employees to take information with them when they leave a company.”

If you think about it, this number isn’t so surprising. With the popularity of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies increasing over time, employees are able to make off with copies of your business’s precious files, even unintentionally, much easier than before.

In fact, one out of every five employees has the intention of uploading corporate data to the cloud via Google Docs, Dropbox, or another service, and share this information with those outside the organization. It can feel disheartening that your trusted team would consider doing this, but it’s important to realize that not all employees will do so. The staff you really need to watch out for are the ones who storm out of your office in a fit of rage.

Here are some more statistics from the survey:

• 66 percent of employees said they were able to access a business' cloud storage applications after they left their last job.
• 60 percent said they were aware that their employer strictly forbids taking intellectual property when they leave the company.
• Only 28 percent said their employer's corporate policies describe who can access mission-critical software-as-a-service (SaaS) apps.

How does your IT department plan on handling this issue? Employees potentially stealing sensitive data isn’t something that should be ignored. You need to enact policies that restrict access and user permissions in order to minimize the chance that a rogue employee will contribute to corporate sabotage. It’s vital that you take initiative to restrict your network from terminated employees as soon, or possibly even before, they find out they won’t be working for you anymore.

If you’re concerned about rogue employees leaving with your hard-earned data, or if you want to bolster your network security practices in general, give Macro Systems a call at (703) 359-9211.