Editor's Corner

Today's leading news item isn't about strategy, new technology or an advancement in networking. It's about an IT leader who has been charged with hacking into his former company's email system, in order to tell ex-colleagues about impending layoffs. It isn't the crime aspect that warrants attention. It's the fact that the former tech honcho actually left his company three years ago and was still able to access internal systems and networks as recently as this past summer. That's what caught my attention, and what I think should catch yours. In every company that I've worked for, IT is typically called in the moment a layoff or firing takes place, and gets busy deleting the employee's passwords and user privileges immediately afterward. Now that could have taken place in this case, and maybe the accused figured out a way in given his knowledge of the system. It will be interesting to find out as the case heads into court. It also got me thinking about how companies handle network access and email once an employee leaves a company. Let me know what your processes and approaches are and I'll share them here next week. -Judy