Security And The Departing Employee

Employees move away, decide to pursue other careers, return to school, retire.

Occasionally, we find ourselves having to let an employee go.

In each case there are security issues and matters that must be addressed for your business's protection.

When an Employee Gives Notice

Assuming that the employee has been a valued and trusted member of your team, you (or your designated computer or security supervisor) should work with the employee to:

• Plan an effective and efficient shift of accounts to the employee's replacement (if necessary)
• Schedule the return of all equipment, checking it against serial number inventories and insuring that everything is accounted for and in good working order
• Transfer customer/vendor contacts and e-mail lists to the appropriate successor for the departing employee
• Establish a date for closing employee accounts (including e-mail) and canceling network access log-ons
• Close all accounts, cancel all log-ons - then have the farewell party for the valued employee.

When an Employee Must Be Fired

When you have to fire an employee for cause, your security responsibilities are both accelerated and more complex. You will need to:

• Immediately terminate all employee accounts, log-ons and access
• Immediately collect all equipment from the employee in question
• Assign someone to oversee the collection of the employee's personal belongings and escort the employee from the premises
• Monitor all systems to insure that the employee has not downloaded sensitive data, put in-place a back-door entry to your system or otherwise compromised your security.

Termination is made even more complex if the employee's offense involves actual compromise or mis-use of computer equipment and accesses. In such cases you should:

• Coordinate timing of account cancellations with your computer supervisor, your attorney (if prosecution is a possibility) and with the authorities (if criminal offenses are a possibility.)
• While you do not wish for a security breach to last any longer than necessary, there are sound legal reasons for at least making contact with attorney and, if necessary, authorities before closing accounts - such as e-mail and browser histories - that may be required as evidence in future prosecutions.