Sensitive data often follows former employees out the door

In a survey from Osterman Research, 69 percent of organizations polled say that they have suffered significant data or knowledge loss resulting from employees who took information resources with them when they left the business. Any form of data loss is a threat to a business, but the report notes that problems can arise both from employees actually taking data with them when they leave, and when departing employees have parked corporate information in locations like cloud storage services that are unknown or inaccessible to their former employer. [ Free security tools to support cybersecurity efforts ] Worries over data loss arise from employees leaving for a new job or knowing that staff cuts are coming, owing to laws requiring 60 days of notice of an impending layoff. [...]security experts urge companies to get more aggressive about locking down their PCs. People in sales may put a presentation or samples on a thumb drive, for instance, so write restrictions could be a nuisance for some employees. Since no enterprise is going to block cloud storage completely, there needs to be better policy enforcement for sanctioned and unsanctioned apps, Narayanaswamy says. Firms can use a cloud access broker to implement a...