Protecting Company Accounts: MFA Is Only the Beginning

The business problem

Many firms consider their accounts secure once multi-factor authentication is enabled. Risk remains when administrator logins are shared, former employees can still sign in or the recovery method is controlled by one unavailable person. Identity security must follow the employee lifecycle.

Warning signs

Inventory email, ERP, accounting, hosting, domains and social platforms. For every service record the business owner, technical administrator, MFA method and recovery path. Prioritize identities capable of changing payments, deleting data or granting access to others.

A practical implementation plan

Use a strong MFA method appropriate to the risk, reduce privileged accounts and separate administration from daily work where needed. Assign access by job role, review memberships regularly and execute immediate offboarding. Test recovery through a documented and authorized procedure.

• Name an owner for every critical account.
• Enable MFA and governed recovery.
• Reduce shared administrator access.
• Test departure-related access removal.

Related perspective: Backups Are Not Enough: Test Business Recovery

An SME example

A sales employee needs CRM and business email, but usually not DNS administration or accounting subscription billing. If the entire team shares one login, changes cannot be attributed to a person. Individual identities improve accountability and limit the impact of mistakes.

How to measure results

Track MFA coverage for important accounts, shared logins, time to revoke access, denied attempts and ownerless accounts. The goal is not zero alerts; it is alerts with accountable responders and an actionable workflow.

Mistakes to avoid

Never store recovery codes in an open chat, rely on one employee's personal phone as the only recovery mechanism or give everyone administrator rights as a shortcut. Security controls must also be usable so employees do not migrate work into unsanctioned personal accounts.

Your next action

Spend two hours inventorying the ten most important accounts. Fix three foundations first: MFA, named ownership and recovery. Run a simulated departure to confirm access can be withdrawn everywhere, and document the findings for next month's review.