How do I securely offboard an employee who leaves?
Short answer
On their last day, disable their accounts, revoke access to shared drives and SaaS tools, collect company devices, change any shared passwords they knew, and transfer ownership of their files and mailbox. A written checklist makes sure nothing is forgotten.
The details
Single sign-on makes offboarding much more reliable, because disabling one account removes access to every connected app.
What to do
- Disable sign-in and revoke active sessions.
- Remove access to every SaaS app and shared vault.
- Rotate shared passwords and API keys they used.
- Recover laptops, phones and security keys.
- Forward or archive their mailbox and files.
Terms explained
- Least privilege
- Least privilege means giving each user, service or AI agent only the access it needs to do its job, and no more, for only as long as it needs it.
- Zero trust
- Zero trust is a security model that grants access per request based on verified identity, device health and context, rather than trusting anything inside a network perimeter.
Sources
Related questions
- Where should a small business start with cybersecurity?
- How much should a small business spend on cybersecurity?
- Are small businesses really targeted by hackers?
- How do I train employees on cybersecurity without boring them?
- What security policies does a small business need?
- What is cyber insurance and does a small business need it?
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