There are issues that companies are not aware or they are not paying attention to. When an employee leaves a company, the first thing they do is change some passwords like the email, the VPN (Virtual Private Network) and other corporate accounts. This is to stop the employee from getting access to sensitive information after an exit.

The issue now is that a lot of people are using DropBox, GoToMyPC, Skype, Online email accounts, etc. These are apps that they are bringing in themselves and, most often, use to put documents or info and have access to it when they are on the road or after hours, or whenever and wherever hey might need it.

The problem is, disgruntled and/or unscrupulous employees would like to have access to the information after leaving because they might want to embarrass the company or get back at other employees or even to just make money and share information with competitors for financial or other gains.

I think this is going to be a big problem going forward. Companies need to invest in security software that monitors where the data is being stored. Maybe the data needs to have a “Pinger” that says, “Hey Did you know I’m here? Someone put me here too…” Or there has to be something like SnapChat, where the owner of the content will decide in what form and for how long something is available for.

A better solution would be if it was like the Mission Impossible tape, “This tape will self destruct in 5 seconds…” I’m sure some companies are working on this issue, I just don’t have the time to research it. I just know this is an itch developing that needs to be scratched soon.

A good video that explains what a VPN is (Watch video)

Diran Afarian
Technology Blogger & Strategist

(Updated original post from July 31 2014)