When an employee leaves an organisation, most leaders focus on succession, handovers and HR paperwork. But behind the scenes, another risk often goes unchecked: the “shadow employee”. Retaining access to company systems long after they’ve left, these ex-staff members pose a serious cybersecurity threat that can lead to data breaches, financial loss and reputational damage – even if everyone parted ways with smiles, hugs and pizza.

“The shadow employee phenomenon is more common than many realise, particularly in organisations with high staff turnover or fragmented and cloud based systems,” asserts Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy and Evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa.

She says it often goes undetected because access management tends to focus more on onboarding than offboarding. “When IT and HR operate in silos or access isn’t centrally tracked, it’s easy for credentials, third-party accounts or shadow IT tools to be overlooked,” Collard comments. “It shouldn’t be seen as just a technical issue; it’s a human one, too, where attention to digital hygiene and processes are lacking.”

Risks of rogue access

The threat of shadow employees was brought into sharp focus in 2023 when a US company suffered a major data leak traced back to a former IT consultant whose access to internal drives was never revoked. The incident exposed client information and resulted in a six-figure (dollar denominated, no less) settlement on top of contract losses.

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“The risks are serious and multifaceted,” states Collard. “They encompass operational risk, reputational risk and financial risk.” In terms of operational risks, she explains that outdated access rights can disrupt workflows, expose sensitive information or allow unauthorised changes to systems – even inadvertently.

Regarding reputational risk, a data breach caused by a former staff member can erode customer trust and damage brand credibility. “Ex-employees with active credentials can intentionally or unintentionally cause data breaches, leak sensitive information, manipulate internal systems or impersonate staff,” she says.

“In some cases, disgruntled employees may delete or sabotage critical data,” she elaborates. “Even if there’s no malicious intent, the mere presence of active credentials outside of an organisation’s control creates vulnerabilities that threat actors can exploit, especially through credential stuffing or phishing.”

The last risk to organisations involves financial risk. “Rogue access can result in regulatory fines, legal costs and lost revenue,” she says. The reason why these security breaches occur is that many organisations treat offboarding as an almost “optional HR thing”, not a cybersecurity event. “They fail to conduct thorough access audits or delay revoking credentials across all systems, especially cloud platforms, collaboration tools and unmanaged software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications,” argues Collard.

Why robust offboarding is key

To close the loop and reduce the shadow employee threat, organisations must build strong offboarding processes that bridge HR and cybersecurity. “It starts with a shared mindset: offboarding must be seen as a collaborative security process, not just an admin task,” she comments.

Another important step is to automate deprovisioning to revoke access in real-time. “Integrating identity and access management (IAM) tools and involving security or risk teams in offboarding governance can also help,” she says. Other action items include performing regular access reviews to identify dormant or unauthorised accounts and educating managers to close the gap on shadow IT.

“Make line managers accountable for flagging all tools and systems used by exiting staff and track unofficial tools in your access control system,” she recommends. The HRM Report also noted that “Shadow AI” use is a growing concern across Africa, with 46% of organisations still developing formal AI policies while staff increasingly use generative AI from work networks without checks on credentials or information sharing. This lack of governance around new technologies further underscores the need for robust offboarding processes that account for all forms of access, not just traditional systems.

In conclusion, Collard maintains that former employees shouldn’t keep the digital keys to your organisation’s kingdom. “As the workplace becomes more hybrid and decentralised, organisations must rethink offboarding as a critical component of cybersecurity hygiene,” she emphasises.

By Ludovic Thanay, Senior Vice President Sales, Webb Fontaine

Africa stands at a turning point. Home to nearly a fifth of the world’s population but responsible for less than 3% of global trade, the continent continues to punch below its weight. The reasons are well documented: weak infrastructure, fragmented policies, and slow adoption of digital systems. The real challenge is not only to bridge the divide but to design a model of trade that reflect’s Africa’s own realities and ambitions. Public-private partnerships (PPPs), when built on trust and shared responsibility, can play a decisive role in that transformation.

More than Procurement

All too often, PPPs in Customs and trade are seen as procurement arrangements, with governments buying systems and private firms delivering them. That narrow view misses the point. Strong partnerships are those that bring stakeholders together to design solutions everyone can benefit from. Governments bring legitimacy and reform agendas rooted in World Customs Organization (WCO) and World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments. Private partners bring technology, agility, and the capacity to deliver at scale. When these elements are combined, partnerships move from being procurement exercises to becoming drivers of reform.

The frameworks already exist. The WCO Data Model, the WCO SAFE Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade, and the Time Release Study all provide the international backbone for reform. But frameworks do not implement themselves. They need digital tools, from risk management systems to Single Windows, Port Community Systems, and e-payment platforms. This is where PPPs prove their value: by turning policy ambitions into working systems that deliver results.

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Trust, Governance, and Transparency

Strong governance underpins every sustainable reform. Without clear roles, independent oversight, and visible results, even the most advanced technology can fail to take root.

Digital systems can reinforce this credibility. Linking e-payment solutions directly to Customs, for example, not only accelerates transactions but also gives finance ministries a real-time picture of revenue. Risk engines that leave an auditable trail make clearance decisions faster while also making them open to review. When operators see a process that is efficient and predictable, trust in the wider system follows.

Data: Shared but Protected

Trade digitalisation depends on data. Declarations, shipping manifests, payments, and risk profiles all need to move quickly between agencies, operators, and even across borders. But speed raises questions of ownership and protection. Who controls this data? How is it used? How is it secured?

PPPs must give answers. Shared platforms cannot succeed if businesses and citizens doubt the safety of their information. Data must flow, but it must also be protected. For Africa, where regional integration under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) depends on interoperability, this means developing consistent data governance rules that balance openness with privacy. Private partners have a critical role here, providing not only the systems but also the security frameworks that keep information safe while still enabling smarter, faster trade.

Capacity and Ownership

Even the best technology fails if the people who use it are not part of the journey. Too many projects collapse because systems were handed over without building local skills or ownership. Sustainable partnerships integrate training and institution-building from the start. Success should be judged by more than faster clearance; it should be about whether administrations can manage and expand these systems themselves over time.

AfCFTA: From Vision to Practice

The AfCFTA offers the prospect of the world’s largest single market. But no agreement, however ambitious, will succeed if each country implements its own isolated digital solutions. A corridor cannot be “smart” if every border is a digital island.

This is where PPPs can help governments look beyond national boundaries and build systems that work together. Integration depends on the basics: harmonised standards, interoperable systems, and shared infrastructure.

Towards a Distinct African Model

By 2050, one in four people on earth will be African. The real question is whether Africa will still be adapting to external models of trade, or whether it will be shaping its own. PPPs provide a chance to do the latter: to design solutions that grow out of African realities while staying connected to global norms.

The lesson from years of reform is clear. Technology matters, but what makes the difference is governance, trust, capacity, and shared responsibility. The real measure of success will be whether the continent can help shape the rules of tomorrow rather than adapt to those of yesterday.

By Kathleen Morris, Product Manager for Satellite at Vox believes that satellite broadband has become the critical layer powering productivity and safety for mega farms, mining and hospitality industries in South Africa’s most remote regions.

Mining, agriculture, renewable energy and hospitality are some of South Africa’s most critical industries. These sectors make up some of the largest contributors to South Africa’s GDP, with mining contributing up to 6% and tourism 8.9%. They rely on always-on connectivity to deliver services, manage customers, prioritise safety and benefit from next-generation technologies, yet many are based in rural areas that lack the density to justify the roll-out of fibre. Instead, they are reliant on wireless links that are vulnerable to theft, power failures and unstable backhaul.

Which is a problem.

Reliable connectivity, says the Minerals Council South Africa, improves efficiencies and ensures safety for employees in hazardous environments. In agriculture, it allows for farms to leverage IoT and sensor-based technologies to optimise irrigation and water use as well as implement scalable agricultural processes. And in hospitality, always-on connectivity enhances travel experiences and broadens local business opportunities.

Fortunately, there’s an alternative to waiting for fibre or relying on wireless – Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite services are a viable option, allowing for the delivery of fibre-like speeds in places where fibre doesn’t reach. And already it has proven invaluable to companies that have invested in the technology.

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Mining operations in the Northern Cape and cross-border operations near Namibia have implemented LEO as a satellite redundancy to safeguard critical communications. Their goal? To ensure that there was little to no downtime in communications because a single connectivity failure could halt automation systems and compromise safety protocols. LEO provides stable redundancy that fibre and microwave links can’t guarantee and works in tandem with alternative connectivity solutions to ensure always-on operations.

In the agricultural sector, IoT solutions are going beyond irrigation and deeper into operational and productivity. The technology is now being used to monitor soil quality, track livestock and use the data provided by multiple sensors and systems to optimise yields. However, without reliable upstream links the data needed for these systems isn’t accessible, which ultimately renders them redundant. LEO has the ability to deliver the connectivity needed to ensure the smart farm model – already proven in the Western Cape with viticulture and Free State with grain production.

In tourism, LEO offers low-latency broadband to boutique lodges in areas like the Kruger or Drakensberg, giving them the ability to deliver high-end services to high-end customers. Think game drive images shared in real time, remote working facilities and even personalised, boutique guest experiences all supported by consistent and reliable connectivity.

Finally, renewable energy is another sector reliant on reliable connectivity, especially as installations sit in rural, hard to reach areas. The country is still adding more solar and wind capacity with additional projects expected over the next 5-10 years, with most projects concentrated in areas like the Eastern and Western Cape. Turbines and solar plants are managed via centralised dashboards which are often located offshore and LEO satellite links can enable continuous monitoring and control, which not only improves management but also offers improved protection over expensive assets.

All these sectors combined can cost the country billions in lost revenue if connectivity and infrastructure fail. It’s the economics of reliability – millions lost to loadshedding, connectivity outages and water failures. LEO can’t fix power, but it can operate reliably despite power outages and in spite of companies being in remote, poorly serviced locations. It moves the conversation away from risk as it can be deployed as insurance.

However, perhaps the most transformative impact LEO has on the country is how it can ignite small business and community-led economies. It removes the need for companies to cluster in metros and entrepreneurs can establish operations in small towns or semi-rural areas without sacrificing global reach. The technology is becoming part of the core connectivity mix that keeps industries competitive and meets the expectations of investors and visitors.

While South Africa’s future hangs from multiple fraying threads, there’s no reason why connectivity has to be one of them.