How to Safely Onboard and Offboard Employees — IT Security Checklist

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Ensuring the security of an organization’s data, assets, and secrets is more critical than ever, especially during employee onboarding and offboarding, where lapses can create serious vulnerabilities. Delayed de-provisioning or mismanaged credentials is one of the top causes of breaches in organizations today.

This guide provides superhero-level IT onboarding and offboarding checklists to help protect sensitive data, systems, and secrets.

Onboarding: The VIP Pass to Productivity and Security

Onboarding is more than orientation, it’s your new employee’s backstage pass to the organization. It ensures they are productive quickly while maintaining security hygiene from day one.

Why Onboarding Matters

1. Access Control
   Provide the right access for the right roles while preventing unauthorized access.
2. Secrets Security Training
   Educate employees on secrets management best practices, policies, and secure handling of credentials.
3. Compliance
   Introduce new employees to regulatory requirements and organizational security policies to minimize risk.

Offboarding: The Security-Focused Exit

Offboarding is the grand finale, a process designed to secure company assets, data, and secrets while ensuring a smooth transition for departing employees.

Why Offboarding Matters

1. Data Security
   Promptly revoke access and retrieve company devices to prevent unauthorized access.
2. Mitigating Insider Threats
   Reduce the risk of disgruntled employees exploiting lingering access.
3. Regulatory Compliance
   Ensure ex-employees no longer have access to sensitive information, meeting legal obligations.

Common Offboarding Challenges

• Zombie IT: Lingering accounts or permissions after departure.
• Orphan Secrets: Unaccounted API keys, tokens, or credentials that pose security risks.

Solution: Use a robust secrets management system and automate access revocation to avoid manual errors and gaps.

Secure IT Onboarding Guidelines

1. Access Control Implementation
   • Assign permissions based on job responsibilities.
   • Regularly review and adjust access levels.
   • Example: Marketing hires shouldn’t have IT admin privileges.
2. Comprehensive Security Training
   • Educate on phishing, password hygiene, and secure handling of secrets.
   • Simulate real-world attacks to strengthen awareness.
   • Highlight that secrets should never be shared over collaboration tools.
3. Device Security Protocols
   • Issue encrypted, company-approved devices.
   • Install antivirus, firewalls, and endpoint protection.
   • Enable remote tracking and wiping.
4. Clear Security Policies
   • Provide written guidelines covering acceptable use, reporting incidents, and policy violations.

Secure IT Offboarding Guidelines

1. Prompt Revocation of Access
   • Disable accounts, VPN access, and cloud tokens immediately.
   • Rotate or revoke all secrets associated with the departing employee.
2. Data Backup and Retrieval
   • Transfer critical files to appropriate team repositories.
   • Ensure no important data is lost.
3. Exit Interviews and Security Debriefs
   • Remind employees of ongoing obligations to protect confidential information.
4. Device Return and Data Wiping
   • Collect company devices and erase sensitive data thoroughly.
5. Access and Credential Management
   • Review shared and privileged credentials.
   • Disable or delete tokens and API keys.
6. Data Transfer and Archiving
   • Ensure compliance-related files are archived safely.
   • Transfer project ownership to appropriate team members.

IT Onboarding Checklist

IT Offboarding Checklist

Addressing Insider and Outsider Threats

• Insider Threats: Onboarding and offboarding ensure employees understand the consequences of unauthorized access.
• Outsider Threats: Security training equips employees to spot phishing, social engineering, and credential attacks.

Secrets are one of the top three attack vectors; developers must be trained to handle them securely during onboarding and offboarding.

Conclusion

Effective IT onboarding and offboarding protect sensitive data, devices, and secrets. A well-structured checklist combined with automation reduces risk, prevents orphan secrets, and minimizes zombie IT.

Entro enhances this process by:

• Identifying hidden secrets across vaults and collaboration tools.
• Enriching secrets with contextual metadata.
• Detecting anomalies and misconfigurations proactively.

With Entro, organizations can securely onboard and offboard employees, ensuring that secrets remain protected throughout their lifecycle.