22/09/2026
One Question Worth Asking …
If someone leaves the business, who knows what systems, accounts or data they had access to?
Could they potentially have full access or be the admin for anything?
If this is a risk in your business, here are some steps you could implement:
1. Have a company-controlled administrator email account that has full access and isn’t tied solely to one individual.
2. Change the password to a new and secure password - log out of all screens logged in.
3. Inform current staff log-in details have been changed and they will need to collect the new log-in information.
What if the person who would change the information above leaves?
1. Always make sure you have time for a handover, this is important as you may lose access if they leave before a handover.
2. Make sure they hand back any information, passwords and equipment to the new person or line manager.
3. Then repeat the steps above, so they can’t log in on another device.
What happens if they leave straight away, without notice or gardening leave?
1. Disable their user account and email access as soon as possible.
2. Remove access to shared systems, cloud services and third-party accounts, particularly anything where they had administrator permissions.
3. Change passwords for any shared accounts they knew or used, and sign out all existing sessions where possible.
4. Remove or reset multi-factor authentication (MFA) linked to their personal phone, email address or authenticator app.
5. Secure company equipment, including laptops, phones, access cards and other devices. If these cannot be recovered immediately, consider whether they can be remotely locked or wiped.
6. Check what they had access to. This is much easier if you already maintain a record of your systems, accounts and administrators.
7. Make sure someone else has the necessary admin access to keep essential systems running.
The best time to work out who has access to what isn’t after somebody has left. Keeping an up-to-date record of your systems, administrator accounts and access permissions makes staff departures much easier to manage - whether they’re planned or unexpected.
