Post-departure access: an underestimated risk

An employee leaves. You take the laptop, stop the paycheck … and think it’s done. But what if they stay “on board” – often unnoticed – for months to come?

NEN 7510: information security in healthcare – also as an ICT partner

It happens more often than you think. A recent poll showed¹:

???? 37% left access to external tools open
???? 27% indicated that shared links were still working
???? 20% saw that emails were still automatically forwarded
???? 17% still had open Teams or file permissions

The danger of ‘forgotten access’

We quickly think of hardware when we think of offboarding. But access to digital systems is often forgotten. As a result, former employees (or their accounts!) continue to have access to:

Shared mailboxes and Teams chats
OneDrive or SharePoint files
Tools such as Canva, HubSpot, Exact or Dropbox
Links that have never been retracted
Outlook rules that keep forwarding emails

And that’s not just inconvenient – it’s a serious risk. Think AVG, data breaches, or simply an old account being abused.

“But I thought IT took care of that…”

Right. And that’s where the rub lies. In many SMEs, offboarding is not an established process. Often it sits “somewhere” with HR, IT or a team leader – but no one has oversight.

Consequence? Risks stay under the radar … until things go wrong. And then you’re too late.

Here’s how to solve it smarter

✔ Make offboarding an integral part of your work process
✔ Work with checklists for access (internal and external)
✔ Deploy automatic signals in case of inactivity
✔ Make sure someone is responsible for the process
✔ Have regular checks on open permissions

At ALTA-ICT, we help SMBs keep a grip on their data. Also after leaving. Smart, safe and hassle-free.