The Forgotten Endpoint: Security Risks Of Dormant Devices
Dark Reading, Wednesday, April 1st, 2026
Technology Talk: That forgotten notebook holds plenty of secrets to enterprise access.
A laptop sits in my home office, issued by a client 14 months ago for a project that was "temporarily paused." I've received no request to return it. The device still has VPN access, saved credentials, and certificates that authenticate me to its internal network.
I'm one of numerous consultants that the client works with. If I wanted to, or if this laptop fell into the wrong hands, it would be a direct path into its infrastructure.