Small-biz tip: Don't overlook this digital danger

Are you the type of business owner who forgets about ex-employees as soon as they’re gone? Failing to remove former employees’ access to your systems and data could lead to security breaches. Don’t let poor offboarding practices be the weak link in your cybersecurity chain.

How improper offboarding can hurt your business

Whenever an employee leaves the organization, you must remove their access to company systems and data. That’s especially true if you’ve laid off an employee. They may feel a sense of anger or resentment towards the company, which makes them more likely to be malicious.

It’s more common than you might think. A recent study from Beyond Identity examined how ineffective offboarding impacts a business’ cybersecurity. They found that one in three employers has been hacked due to ineffective offboarding.

Oh, and most former employees say they can still access company files. Researchers say 91% of employees can still see private files after offboarding earlier last year. Do you want former employees to know what you’re doing a year later? Probably not!

Plus, the study found only 21% of employers deactivated an employee’s account immediately after they let the worker go. It took 29% a whole week to cut the strings.

Offboarding is the process of removing an employee's access to company resources after they leave. Do it correctly to remove security risks.
Image from Beyond Identity.

Overall, businesses estimated they lost $7,687 to ineffective offboarding. In other words, it’s a mistake you can’t afford to make. Want to build better business practices? Here are the three lessons Kim has for fellow business owners.

Offboarding dangers for small-business owners

⚠️ If you don’t completely cut off former employees, you’re taking on a ton of risks, like:

  1. Insider threats: Former employees who can still access company systems and data can steal confidential information or sabotage your systems.
  2. Social engineering: I talk a lot about how dangerous phishing scams are. They can level a company’s computer systems. Former employees are especially dangerous because they know social details about the workplace, which can help them access sensitive information or networks.
  3. Revenge: In some cases, fired employees may attempt to cause harm to their former employer out of revenge, such as launching a denial-of-service attack or spreading false information about the company.

Beyond Identity’s survey found that 86% of employees have considered taking negative actions against a former employer. People who actually went through with retaliation had diverse reasons: 37% said they didn’t get a raise, while 29% cited a bad relationship.

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10 things you should never say to an AI chatbot

This is a heartbreaking story out of Florida. Megan Garcia thought her 14-year-old son was spending all his time playing video games. She had no idea he was having abusive, in-depth and sexual conversations with a chatbot powered by the app Character AI.

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Focus! Blurry pics are a bummer. Sometimes your phone’s cam picks the wrong spot. For a quick reset, tap the area on your screen you want to be the clearest. Easy and effective.

8 years

How much you can lower your biological age by lifting weights three times a week. A study found just one hour of strength training can fight obesity, boost metabolism and improve cardiovascular health. No time? Try a home gym.

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The morning habits of CEOs (including me!)

I ran across this story (paywall link) about the morning routines of tech billionaire CEOs. It was interesting but not that thorough, so I did additional research. Here’s what I found, and even though I’m far from a billionaire, I’ll share my morning recipe for success, too.

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📚 Useful site: WorldCat.org is the world’s largest library search engine. It connects you to libraries around the world — a catalog of 405 million books, 440 million articles, 10 million musical scores and lots more. How does a librarian organize their music collection? The Dewey Decibel System! (I couldn’t resist.)

Get your foot in the door: Your website’s footer is prime real estate! Make sure yours has your business address, contact details and hours of operation. Social media icons are a must, and it’s smart to have your privacy policy there, too. Bonus points if you embed a map. <a href=”https://www.komando.com/getsmallbiz/” trigger-id=”4779805″>Join the list for my free small-biz newsletter for more intel like this.</a>

Improve your Mac’s display: Click the Apple menu > System Settings, then scroll to Displays on the sidebar. Click the pop-up menu for Color profile > Customize and hit the + (plus icon) to open Display Calibrator Assistant. Picture-perfect.

✨ Give your dull screen a glow-up: Calibrate your computer monitor to watch my podcast in crystal-clear quality. On Windows 11, open Settings > System > Display > Color Profile. Under Color Calibration, hit the Calibrate display button.

Attention, parents: Facebook Marketplace is a goldmine for deals on kids’ clothes and toys. In the search bar, type in what you need, like “baby gate.” Press enter and hit Notify Me so you’ll know when something pops up. Under Categories, click Free Stuff and check there, too. Remember, free doesn’t always mean safe. Check for recalls.

50% off your cloud bill: Using AI in your business adds up fast. Take a free test drive of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure now at Oracle.com/kim to see if they can cut your bill in half. Hurry — this offer ends on Dec. 31, 2024.

Use Excel a lot? Set up a macro to automate anything you do often, like formatting a monthly report the same way. Full guide here. So worth the time it takes to set up.

Quick TV tip: You might be tempted to change your TV’s picture mode to Game for football, but that mode is for video games. The best setting for sports is Cinema or Movie. Sports mode is generally too bright, so the game may look washed out.

Listen up: Tell Alexa to turn the volume up or down on your Echo without tapping the buttons. Say, “Alexa, volume up” for a gradual increase or “Alexa, turn the volume to five” for precise control. Choose a number from one to 10. Warning: 10 is really, really loud.

👻 Now you see it, now you don’t: “Vanish mode” turns Instagram into a Snapchat copycat, where messages disappear after you’ve viewed them. To try it, open a direct message in IG and swipe up from the bottom of your screen. That’s it. Swipe up again to turn it off.

Need a screenshot fast? On Windows, hold down on the Windows key + Shift + S to capture and save what you want. On a Mac, use Cmd + Shift + 4 for a custom crop.

💬 Dot, dot, dot: Gmail ignores periods in an email address. Say yours is greatname@gmail.com. You’ll still get your messages if you type it as “great.name” or “grea.t.name.” That’s an easy way to create a quick alias for forms that don’t let you add a plus sign when making an account.

Use an Apple watch? Make sure Fall Detection is turned on so you can get help if there’s an emergency. On your iPhone, open the Watch app, tap the My Watch tab > Emergency SOS. From here, you can choose Always on or Only on during workouts. Pick Always on.

📸 Your year in pics: In Google Photos, open the app to see its Spotify Wrapped rip-off, which crunches the numbers on your pictures for the year. You’ll see the faces you took the most photos of (I bet at least one is your pet) and your “vibe” for the year based on what you snapped most.

Banks close, just like other businesses: Search the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation site to see if money in your name was left in failed financial institutions. For funds left in credit unions, search the National Credit Union Administration site. It’s like the digital version of finding a $20 bill under the couch cushions!