By Michelle McLean
Many businesses today are being forced to lay off experienced employees as a result of the current economic climate. Many of ConSentry’s customers have become acutely aware of the precautions they must take to ensure corporate assets remain protected in the event of a reduction in force.
An oft-cited report from the Ponemon Institute cited the statistic that 59% of people laid off or fired or who quit their jobs within the last 12 months admitted to stealing company information they thought could help them in a new job.
It’s clear that IT managers need to know when employees are accessing sensitive files. Decades of research can disappear if companies don’t have technology at the network edge that can quickly identify users on the LAN – by full user name and not just IP address – especially when today’s economy has many employees proactively thinking about “plan B” in advance of a staff reduction.
Many of our customers have expressed concern over the vulnerability of Intellectual Property (IP) during layoff situations. These customers view their patents and other assets as a competitive differentiator, and much of their revenue derives from this critical data. Thus, the ability to see what users are accessing does more than provide interesting info or simplify troubleshooting; it literally protects the bottom line.
One example of a ConSentry customer that put role-based control to use during a recent layoff is Pioneer Electronics. SC Magazine interviewed Max Reissmueller, senior manager of IT operations and infrastructure at Pioneer Electronics. The interview ended up being the magazine’s cover story that month, with the headline "Security During Layoffs: Inside Out." The article is full of great advice about the need for context — Layer 7 visibility of policy over users, applications, and devices—to control your network and users. While layoffs are always very difficult, enforcing role-based access control can at least ease the concerns around protecting corporate assets.
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