Organizational Memory Ghost

When employees leave, their digital identities and access permissions persist in systems, creating an attack surface for external attackers and malicious insiders. Access controls often lag behind personnel changes, posing particular risks in high-turnover or high-sensitivity industries.

Articles on this principle

• The Ghost Account of an Apple Ex-Employee: The Time-Gap Trap Between Personnel Movement and Information Security

  A former Apple employee, months after joining OpenAI, could still use an expired account to log into Apple's network and download confidential documents—not a technical flaw, but a blind spot in organizational process.