From Welcome to Farewell: The Cybersecurity Risks involved in Employee Onboarding and Offboarding
- shaun9968
- Jul 11
- 4 min read
Introduction
Imagine handing a stranger the keys to your office, granting them access to filing cabinets, safes, and confidential client conversations without setting any rules, checking they understand how to handle these assets properly or knowing when they'll return the keys. That’s essentially what happens when businesses overlook cybersecurity during employee onboarding and offboarding.
Every time a new hire joins, it can be exciting. Someone bringing fresh ideas, energy and value, or much needed reinforcements to a depleted team.
However, whether it’s someone joining or leaving there’s a window of vulnerability and If that window isn’t managed carefully, it can be pried open by cybercriminals, misused by insiders, or simply forgotten and left unlocked.
Many businesses overlook the critical importance of securing the employee onboarding and offboarding process. From accidentally creating accounts with too many permissions to forgotten access after someone leaves, these gaps can be exploited by attackers or even by disgruntled insiders.
In this post, we’ll uncover the hidden cybersecurity dangers tied to onboarding and offboarding and explain how even small oversights can lead to data breaches, insider threats, and financial damage. More importantly, we’ll give ideas on how to fix them.
Risks with Onboarding
Overprovisioning Access: It’s common for new employees to be given broad access "just in case" or to speed up productivity. But this often leads to excessive privileges that go unchecked.
Example: A junior employee is given admin-level access to shared drives or financial systems unnecessarily.
Risk: If their account is compromised, an attacker gains far more access than they should.
Lack of Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC)If access isn't tightly aligned with roles and responsibilities, it’s easy for employees to access data they don’t need and shouldn’t have.
Shadow Accounts and Tools: New employees often start using their own tools to get the job done, especially in remote/hybrid work settings. These “shadow IT” tools aren’t monitored or secured.
Inadequate Security Training: Onboarding is the best time to instil good security habits. If skipped or rushed, new hires may fall for phishing attacks or mishandle sensitive data.
Hidden Risk of Third-Party Shadow Software
When employees onboard, they often bring their own tools to stay productive. Note-taking apps, file-sharing services, communication platforms, and more. While these tools may seem harmless, if they haven’t been approved or vetted by IT, they fall under the category of Shadow IT.
What’s the risk?
Data leakage: Sensitive business data could be stored on unsecured or non-compliant platforms.
Access gaps: IT may have no visibility or control over who can access what and for how long.
No offboarding control: When employees leave, accounts on unapproved tools often stay active and unmanaged.
Security blind spots: Shadow apps may lack encryption, logging, or basic security features, exposing the company to breaches.
Good Onboarding Practice:
✅ Use Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC)Grant access only to the systems and data necessary for an employee’s role.
✅ Document & Automate Access Provisioning: Keep records of every system a user is given access to and consider automating via identity and access management (IAM) platforms.
✅ Security Training from Day One: Include cybersecurity training as a mandatory part of onboarding. Cover phishing, password hygiene, data handling, and reporting suspicious behaviour. Also good data handling practices.
✅ Monitor Early Activity: Set alerts for unusual activity from new accounts, especially downloads, permissions changes, or login anomalies.
✅ Create and communicate an approved software list during onboarding.
✅ Use SaaS management or CASB tools to detect and monitor third-party apps.
✅ Encourage openness make it easy for employees to request new tools through a formal review process.
✅ Reinforce policies in training so staff understand the business risks of using unapproved software.
Risks with Offboarding
- Orphaned Accounts: When employees leave, their access should be revoked immediately. But in many businesses, old logins, email accounts, and cloud app credentials are left active for weeks or indefinitely.
A former boss of mine at a previous company had to email the tech team to tell them he could still access his account 3 months after he left! Not sure how or why he checked but still…If he had left under bad circumstances or was a less scrupulous person he could have caused damage or stolen sensitive data.
Former employees (or hackers) can exploit these accounts for data theft, sabotage, or fraud.
- Retained Access to Third-Party Services: Former staff may still have access to services like Slack, Google Drive, Dropbox, or CRM platforms if those accounts aren’t centrally managed.
- Insider Threats: Disgruntled employees who know they’re leaving may download sensitive data, email clients to poach, or intentionally sabotage systems.
- Data Leakage via Personal Devices: If staff use their own phones or laptops (BYOD), sensitive business data may leave with them unless offboarding includes wiping or restricting access.
Good Offboarding Practice
✅ Instant Access Revocation: Revoke access to all systems on the employee’s last day including email, VPN, shared drives, and third-party apps.
✅ Use Centralized Identity Management: Tools like Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD), Okta, or Google Workspace help admins revoke all access with one action.
✅ Audit and Remove Devices: Ensure any business data on personal or company devices is wiped or returned. Revoke MFA tokens and app authorizations.
✅ Track & Close Accounts: Maintain an inventory of all SaaS accounts and tools and have a checklist to ensure nothing is missed during offboarding.
✅ Exit Interviews with Security in Mind: Ask employees if they’ve stored data locally, shared files, or created accounts outside of IT’s purview.
🧠 Final Thoughts
Cybersecurity isn’t just a technical issue it’s a people issue. And no process highlights that better than onboarding and offboarding.
Done carelessly, these transitions can create dangerous security gaps. Done thoughtfully, they reinforce a culture of accountability and safety. The key is consistency, clear policies, and tools that help enforce them.
So next time someone joins or leaves your team, don’t just think about HR paperwork think about how you’re protecting your business from the inside out.
Further Reading:
Article on secure onboarding practices:
Article on secure offboarding practices:
Regola article on the dangers of Shadow IT:
