How to prevent former employees from breaching the company’s cybersecurity?

When an employee leaves, one of the concerns of some companies is that it could compromise cybersecurity and steal information or cause a conflict, especially if they did not leave on good terms. This fear is intensified in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as at least one 40% fear that a former employee will access to corporate files, reveals Kaspersky.

According to a study on the behavior of SMEs during times of crisis, many company managers are not sure that access to information is impossible for employees who leave. two out of five could not confirm whether or not you have access to the digital assets.

“In Mexico, 29% of SMEs consider job cuts as a possible measure to reduce costs in the event of a crisis, but the reduction of personnel is considered a risk factor for information security,” the report indicates.

Among the main concerns on the subject, he highlights the misuse of data in new people jobss with 67%, or use corporate databases as customer lists to generate business opportunities on a personal level with 56 percent.

“Unauthorized third party access can become a big problem for any company, as it affects their competitiveness when corporate data is shared with a competitor, sold or deleted,” explains Alexey Vovk, Head of Information Security at Kaspersky.

Increase awareness of cybersecurity

In the search to combat the economic crisis related to the problems of the environment, companies are taking measures to continue cutting costs and guarantee their survival.

The main one is lower investment in advertising and promotion (36%), followed by reducing expenses on vehicles both for purchase and rental (34%), and reducing the workforce and freezing contracts with (31%). The good news is that the cybersecurity is not being sacrificed therefore, only in 13% of the cases because they are already aware of all the impacts that can be had.

To do

Addressing the biggest challenges to maintaining cyber resiliency, the biggest issue SMBs have experienced is data breaches at 41%, as well as understanding new risks (where ex-employees are involved) at 34%, and operational issues for failures in the IT area, with 34 percent.

Pablo Basso, Technology and Innovation Manager at Ecomsur, a leader in Fullcommerce solutions in Latin America, explains that there are many bad practices that seek access and theft of information, so the security areas of companies must be better prepared.

Data from the PwC survey, Digital Trust Insights 2022, reveals that 63% of business leaders anticipated, in this year, an increase in the number of cyberattacks on your cloud services and data theft that could affect your marketing and sales strategies. Many did happen.

Given this, how can SMEs protect themselves? Specialists Vovk and Basso issue the following recommendations

• Maintain control of the number of collaborators who access the organization’s data
• Create an asset access policy, including email, shared folders, and online documents
• Make regular backups of essential data
• Foster a culture of frequent password change among employees
• Educate about cybersecurity
• Approach specialists to intensify protection
• Look for insurance against cyberattacks that covers losses caused by hacks or ransomware
• Implement a zero-trust model where the user and device trying to access the data are always verified, establishing layered security
• Always be aware of possible cases