Here are some eye-opening numbers related to systems-access risks:

• Roughly 467,000 nonfarm jobs were eliminated last month in the U.S.;

• Employees at many companies maintain 15 to 20 user accounts on a company’s network;

• These accounts grant users access to customer financial information, banking records, patient records, and other business-critical data; and

• Roughly 9.34 million user accounts needed to be shut off last month.

Are you emailing your CIO right now?

A new survey suggests you ought to. Courion’s research reveals that many IT executives and managers underestimate the risk their businesses face from terminated employees.

When login access is not immediately shut down (“de-provisioned” in techie talk) following a layoff, “zombie accounts” – those that remain active after employees have left the company – can come back to haunt companies. These accounts give former employees the opportunity to access crucial data.

I’ll be researching and reporting on this potentially spooky topic more within the next couple of weeks. ###