IT leaves ex-workers' accounts open

Ellen Libenson knows that "it's a pain in the butt" for IT administrators to deactivate access to IT systems by ex-employees and contractors. She says there are always other fires for admins to fight that seem more important.

As vice president of marketing for Symark International Inc., which does business as Symark Software in Agoura Hills, Calif., Libenson funded a survey of IT, HR, security and other managers conducted by eMediaUSA of Oak Brook, Ill. to learn just how pervasive the problem of orphaned accounts is.

The 850-plus responses to the poll released today indicate it's a good-size issue.

According to the survey, 27% of the organizations admitted that they had more than 20 orphaned accounts still active; while 8% acknowledged that 100 or more ex-workers still had live accounts. More incredible, 15% of those polled said those accounts had been accessed at least once after the individual had been terminated.

Scarier still, 42% are clueless. That is, they don't know how many orphaned accounts exist, nor do they know whether orphaned accounts are still being used.

Only 39% of the respondents said all accounts are closed upon an individual's termination. An amazing 12% said it took a month or longer to do so.

Libenson rightly says orphaned accounts don't get the attention they deserve. "Everybody knows it, but people are overextended," she explains.

Her company's Power suite of access-management software can help minimize or eliminate the problem. You might want to give them a look before an orphan returns to haunt your IT systems.