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How to Handle Security
When a C-Level Exec
Leaves the Organization
By Mike Tierney
In November 2014, ride share service Lyft filed a complaint in San Francisco Superior Court accusing the company’s former COO of
stealing confidential product plans and financial information as he exited the company to join rival Uber.
In February 2015, Chesapeake Energy filed a lawsuit contending its former CEO took confidential data, including maps of potential oil and gas drilling sites, and then used the information to start a competitive company.
As accusations like these play out in the courts, it’s a good time to take a look at C-level departures and the need to ensure
that the companies they are leaving remain protected. It’s well-documented that intel- lectual property theft occurs at an alarm- ing rate when employees prepare to leave a company. Recent events, such as the two examples illustrated above, have taught us that this IP theft can occur at the highest levels, where access to a company’s most confidential and sensitive information is
typically unfettered.
There are simple, common sense steps
that can be taken to mitigate the risks around departing employees, which in- clude:
• Reviewing all online activity that occurred during the 30-day period preceding notice of resignation, or during the period when an employ- ee may believe he or she is going to be terminated.
• Reviewing confidentiality and intel- lectual property agreements with the departing employee in advance of his or her departure, and requir- ing a certification that all confiden- tial information in the employee’s possession has been returned and/ or destroyed.
Practices like these should extend to the executive suite, as no one in the company possesses more sensitive information than senior management.
When organizations contemplate a C- level hire, they typically exercise due care to ensure that they make the right deci- sion to entrust that person with the level of
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