Employee turnover is a normal part of running a business; some of your workers will eventually depart your company, amicably or otherwise. But regardless of how it happens, it is crucial not to overlook how much digital access and company data your former employee is potentially taking with them.
For small and mid-sized businesses like yours that lack robust IT departments, improper offboarding is one of the most common causes of data leaks and unauthorized access to networks. To stop these easily preventable disasters, every exit from your company should trigger a standardized cybersecurity process that safeguards your data.
This guide will explain the risks of doing it wrong and how you can securely offboard staff.
What does it mean to offboard an employee, and what could go wrong?
When someone leaves your company, you disable their email and collect any company devices, but this is not enough to ensure your data’s security. Employee offboarding is the process of removing a departing staff member’s access to your company’s systems and transferring ownership of accounts, files, and responsibilities.
When offboarding is rushed or inconsistent, your cyber risks spike. Former employees may retain access to cloud storage, CRM platforms, internal chat tools, or VPN connections. They might also have company data on personal devices that must be wiped, or they might still have passwords to shared digital assets saved.
If this data and free access to your systems escape your company’s grasp, you might experience:
- Unauthorized access to sensitive customer and financial data
- Accidental data loss when accounts are deleted without backups
- Increased risk of insider threats and credential misuse
- Compliance violations tied to access control failures
Even if the departing employee is not malicious, they might not realize they still have access to your systems, and a cybercriminal can easily take advantage to infiltrate your business.
Securely offboarding an employee, step by step
A strong offboarding process should be repeatable, documented, and fast. The goal is to eliminate access immediately while preserving your business data and workflows. Your business is unique, and your offboarding should be tailored to reflect this. So, you have to make sure that your process includes these key steps:
Step 1: Disable account access immediately
Start by revoking access to core systems. This includes:
- Email accounts
- VPN connections
- Cloud platform accounts
- Internal communication apps
- Collaboration tools
- Any other platform or app integrated into your business network
Access should be disabled as close to the departure time as possible to avoid unauthorized activity.
Step 2: Change shared credentials and admin passwords
Update passwords for systems that may have been accessed by the departing employee, especially administrator accounts, finance platforms, and cloud dashboards. Consider a password manager to quickly change passwords for every offboarding to save time.
Step 3: Secure and reassign company data
Preserve important communications and documents before deactivating accounts, and transfer ownership of files, email inboxes, and project folders to prevent accidental data loss when user profiles are archived or deleted.
Step 4: Collect and secure company devices
Retrieve laptops, mobile phones, security badges, USB drives, and external storage, then audit and wipe the devices before redeploying them. For remote staff, use mobile device management tools to wipe company data if hardware cannot be returned immediately.
Step 5: Revoke third-party app access
Many employees connect business accounts to external tools such as marketing platforms, accounting software, project management systems, and cloud services. Review integration permissions and remove access tokens linked to the departing user.
Step 6: Update internal access documentation
Update your IT documentation on when data was wiped and access was revoked for the departing employee. This satisfies compliance requirements and provides proof of proper security controls.
Step 7: Monitor for unusual activity after departure
To verify everything was done right, enable alerts on high-risk systems to watch for:
- Login attempts from old accounts
- Unusual file downloads
- Abnormal access patterns
- Fake communications from departed staff
- Other suspicious activity
Step 8: Review offboarding procedures regularly
Technology environments evolve, and new applications, cloud platforms, and remote tools require ongoing updates to offboarding checklists. Periodic reviews ensure nothing slips through the cracks, but if you don’t have the bandwidth to stay on top of developments, consider partnering with a cybersecurity services provider like XBASE.
Contact XBASE for a consultation so that our cybersecurity team can craft a tailored offboarding process for your company that keeps your data safe, stays out of your way, and remains up to date.