By AfricaHeadline | Johannesburg, South Africa | October, 2025
It starts with a simple oversight.
A marketing manager resigns, takes their personal laptop, and walks away on good terms. Months later, they unknowingly upload a folder from a company’s shared cloud drive onto their personal storage, exposing client proposals and campaign data to the public. A competitor finds it. Sensitive information leaks. The company faces reputational damage and a storm of legal and financial consequences.
AfricaHeadline Reports Team
editorial@africaheadline.com
This scenario might sound like fiction, but in today’s cloud-driven world, it’s alarmingly plausible. The silent culprit? The “shadow employee,” a former staff member who retains unnoticed access to corporate systems long after leaving.
“When an employee leaves, leaders tend to focus on handovers and HR forms,” says Anna Collard, Senior Vice President for Content Strategy and Evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa. “But they often forget that digital access is the new front door of the organisation, and it’s left wide open far too often.”
Collard describes the “shadow employee” phenomenon as far more common than most companies realise, especially in environments with high staff turnover or decentralised cloud-based systems. It often slips through the cracks because access management focuses on onboarding, not offboarding.
“When IT and HR work in silos, credentials and third-party accounts are easily overlooked,” Collard explains. “It’s not just a technical gap, it’s a human one, driven by neglect of digital hygiene and weak processes.”
The risk became painfully clear in 2023 when a U.S. company suffered a major data leak traced to a former IT consultant whose cloud access was never revoked. The result: exposed client information and a settlement costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“The risks are serious and multifaceted,” says Collard. “They cover operational, reputational, and financial dimensions.”
Operationally, outdated credentials can disrupt workflows, expose confidential data, or allow unauthorised system changes. From a reputational standpoint, a breach caused by a former employee can destroy customer trust and brand credibility overnight.
“Ex-employees with active credentials can leak sensitive data, manipulate systems, or impersonate staff,” she warns. “Even when there’s no bad intent, forgotten access points become entry doors for cybercriminals.”
In some cases, disgruntled former employees have deleted or sabotaged critical company data. Yet even well-intentioned ex-staff pose a risk. Credentials left active in shared drives, third-party apps or cloud services can be weaponised through credential stuffing or phishing, allowing attackers to infiltrate corporate systems under legitimate user identities.
Beyond the data breach itself lies a deeper cost. Regulatory fines, lawsuits, insurance claims and operational downtime can cripple small and medium-sized firms.
“The real problem,” Collard argues, “is that too many organisations treat offboarding as an optional HR process, not a cybersecurity event.”
Many companies delay revoking credentials across all systems, especially cloud platforms, collaboration tools, and unmanaged SaaS applications. In a hybrid work era, where employees use personal devices and multiple logins, these oversights multiply.
Experts say the solution lies in making offboarding as rigorous as onboarding. Collard insists that “offboarding must be a joint effort between HR and IT, a coordinated security process, not just an administrative box to tick.”
Automating the deprovisioning of accounts and integrating Identity and Access Management (IAM) tools can ensure real-time revocation of privileges. Regular access reviews, combined with staff training on “shadow IT,” help identify dormant or unauthorised accounts before they become vulnerabilities.
“Line managers should be held accountable for reporting every tool and system used by departing staff,” Collard advises. “Track unofficial apps in your access control system; that’s where most surprises hide.”
The latest HRM Report also highlights another emerging concern: the rise of “Shadow AI” across African organisations. With 46% of companies still drafting formal AI policies, employees increasingly use generative AI tools connected to corporate networks, often without oversight or security vetting.
“This lack of governance over new technologies compounds the shadow employee problem,” Collard warns. “Organisations must adapt their offboarding to account for all digital touchpoints, not just traditional systems.”
As companies embrace hybrid and decentralised work models, the line between personal and professional systems continues to blur. But one principle remains clear: no one who leaves should keep the digital keys to the kingdom.
“The workplace has changed,” Collard concludes. “And so must our definition of cybersecurity hygiene. Offboarding isn’t just about saying goodbye; it’s about locking the doors behind you.”
In an era where data breaches can begin with something as simple as a forgotten login, “shadow employees” are becoming one of the most underestimated threats in corporate security. As digital systems expand, so too must the vigilance of the humans managing them, because sometimes, the most dangerous insider is the one you forgot existed.
