New Security Risk with the Outlook App

Do your employees use the Outlook App for iOS or Android? If they use the app, then you may be putting your network security at risk. While the Outlook App is certainly useful, there are some serious security flaws that may get introduced to your network.

The Major Security Breach

If you allow use of the Outlook App then you are most likely running Exchange on your network.

The issue comes in when you allow Outlook to download the company directory to the app. While having the contact information of everyone in the company is useful for employees, it can be troublesome when that employee decides to leave the company.

If the application is not deleted from the employee’s phone they can leave the company with all of your Outlook information saved and available to them. This means that an employee could take that data to a new company and potentially use it against you.

This could be particularly troublesome if you have a sales rep leave and they are able to take a full database of customer information with them.

Proper Off-Boarding Procedures

When an employee chooses to separate from your company what is your off-boarding procedure? Do you deploy a formal process that ensures employee network access, user accounts, software and emails are removed and archived?

Or, is it more of an informal process that can leave artifact accounts and compromised data in the hands of that former employee?

Off-boarding should involve a detailed checklist that includes the deletion of information like company data from personal devices. This should go hand-in-hand with deleting accounts, apps and removing access from all critical IT systems from the former employee. This should include changing the secure wireless network password as well.

The Dangers of Employee Personal Hardware

As the lines between company provided hardware and employee personal hardware continue to blur, security risks like this are going to become more common.

IT Security teams will need to remain vigilant to keep confidential company data secure. As new apps are developed to improve user access, they will need to be tested and vetted thoroughly by security teams to ensure BYOD and Off-Boarding policies are kept up to date.

Need Help with Your IT Support and Security?

U.S. Computer Connection is expert at handling network security. Let us help you update your corporate BYOD and Off-Boarding Policies and review your network security.