Don’t let ex-employees become a security risk.

The world of Software as a Service (SaaS) brings many advantages, from enhanced security to remote working, but could it also bring new dangers too?

Overboarding on off-boarding

The phrase “off-boarding” may not be a term that you’re familiar with, basically, it’s what IT does when someone leaves an organisation. In the old days, off-boarding wasn’t such a big deal as most of the IT systems could only be accessible from within the company premises. With SaaS, and remote working this is no longer the case, and off-boarding has become a “thing”.

Not correctly off-boarding an ex-employee can have huge implications for a business. Here are 3 real-life examples of ex-employees creating havoc due to poor off-boarding practices.

Columbia says it was hacked for 2 years in a lawsuit against ex-staffer – Ex-employee Michael Leeper accessed the emails of Columbia’s senior executives and IT department in the hope of gaining access to information that would help him win technology contracts.

Former Systems Administrator Sentenced to Prison for Hacking into Industrial Facility Computer System – Former IT specialist Brian P. Johnson received a 34-month prison sentence for hacking into Georgia Pacific paper mill computer systems and messing with the control systems. Johnson caused over $1.1 million dollars worth of losses.

Fired IT guy puts porn in ex-boss’ PowerPoint, gets sweet revenge – Disgruntled IT worker, Walter Powell, 52, was sentenced to three years probation and a 100 hours community service. The IT worker used his active account to send bogus emails from the CEO. Powell also accessed the CEO’s laptop and added a pornographic image to a PowerPoint presentation during a company board meeting.

As we’ve seen incorrectly off-boarding employees can be devastating to a business. Patronum Cloud Manager can help address this common risk by implementing correct lifecycle management for your SaaS applications.