The Employee Left. The Risk Didn’t.

It's a scenario every business owner has faced:

An employee quits.

You collect their laptop.

You shut off their email.

But did you remember the keys?

That tiny detail-often overlooked-can lead to much bigger problems.

The Real Risk: What Walks Out with Departing Employees

Most small and mid-sized businesses have some kind of offboarding checklist. But physical access is rarely treated with the same urgency as digital access.

Here's why that's a mistake:

• Keys don't log activity. You'll never know if they were used unless there's a break-in.

• Keys are easy to copy. Anyone can walk into a hardware store and make a duplicate.

• Access often gets forgotten. Unlike email or payroll systems, physical access doesn't ping you when it's still active.

And once someone's gone, there's no easy way to track what they do with those keys.

Intentionally or not.

What Counts as an Insider Threat?

An insider threat isn't always a disgruntled ex-employee plotting revenge. In fact, most cases are accidental or negligent:

• A former manager still has a key and uses it to grab their forgotten water bottle-after hours.

• A cleaning contractor was never removed from the system and shows up a month later, thinking they're still on the job.

• A terminated employee copies a key before returning it, just in case.

Insider threats often come from people who once had legitimate access... and still do.

Why This Problem Is Growing

As businesses adopt more cloud apps and digital tools, they've gotten better at shutting down digital access fast.

But physical access? That's still lagging.

• Manual key management is hard to track.

• Rekeying locks takes time and money.

• It's easy to assume the risk is low-until it's not.

We broke this down in 5 Signs You Need to Upgrade Your Access Control, especially for businesses still relying on brass keys and memory.

Cybersecurity gets the headlines. But physical security is where most small businesses are still vulnerable.

How to Protect Your Business from Insider Access Risk

You don't need a security team to tighten things up. Just a plan.

Here are five simple steps:

1. Build a real offboarding checklist

Include physical keys, keycards, garage remotes-anything that opens doors.

2. Track who has access

Keep a living record of every person who can enter your space and how.

3. Remove access immediately

Don't delay. If someone leaves, disable their access the same day.

4. Avoid shared keys

When multiple people use the same key, accountability disappears.

5. Audit access regularly

Set a calendar reminder to review access every quarter-no one should have access forever.

It's Not About Paranoia. It's About Control.

Most people don't leave on bad terms.

But mistakes happen. People forget. And risks pile up when you're not looking.

If your business still uses physical keys or unmanaged access systems, take a hard look at your offboarding process. The goal isn't to stop trusting your people-it's to stop relying on memory.

Security isn't just about who should get in.

It's also about knowing who still can.