How to Create a Cybersecurity Checklist for New Employees and Contractors

A practical onboarding and access-control guide for companies that need people productive on day one without creating hidden security gaps for months afterward.

TL;DR

Cybersecurity onboarding should begin before the first login for small and mid-sized businesses. The company should already know what systems the person needs, what data they can reach, which device they will use, who approved the access and when temporary access should expire. The checklist then carries those decisions through account setup, Multi-Factor Authentication, device controls, role-specific training, reporting and the first access review.

Contractors need the same discipline with tighter boundaries around project scope, device ownership, guest access and end dates. The objective is to get people productive quickly with access that matches the work they actually perform, then make sure every account, shared folder, token and system permission has a clear owner and an eventual exit path

Key Takeaways

• Define the person’s role, systems, data access, device and approver before Information Technology creates accounts. This prevents rushed onboarding from turning into months of unnecessary access.
• Build access around the work being performed. A finance employee, developer, customer support hire and contractor should receive different permissions because the systems, data and actions available to them carry different risks.
• Require named accounts, Multi-Factor Authentication and managed or clearly approved devices before sensitive work begins. Strong identity controls are far less useful when the device itself is unmanaged or compromised.
• Give contractors defined project access, clear device rules and an end date from the start. Their accounts, guest permissions and shared workspaces should follow the duration of the engagement.
• Train people around the situations they will actually encounter. Finance teams need payment-fraud scenarios, developers need secrets and access guidance, and customer-facing teams need clear rules for files, links and customer data.
• Review access after the person has started working and build offboarding into the original checklist. Permissions that were reasonable on day one can quickly become excessive after projects, responsibilities and contracts change.

Secure the First Login Before the Person Starts Work

In September 2022, Uber disclosed a breach that began with an external contractor’s account. According to Uber’s own incident update filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the attacker likely obtained the contractor’s corporate password after malware infected the contractor’s personal device.

The attacker then made repeated two-factor authentication requests until one was eventually approved. From that single account, the attacker reached other employee accounts and gained elevated access to internal tools including G-Suite and Slack.

Most small and mid-sized businesses will never have Uber’s infrastructure, but they face the same underlying risk whenever access is granted quickly without enough thought about the device, the role or the duration of the work. A new employee may begin from a personal laptop because the company device has not arrived, a contractor may receive broad permissions because the project is urgent, or a manager may ask IT team to mirror another employee’s access because the roles look similar.

These decisions often feel harmless at the time, yet they can leave people with more access than they need, create weak device controls and make temporary permissions difficult to unwind later. The safer approach is to decide the access model before the first login, so productivity does not depend on shortcuts that remain embedded long after onboarding is complete.

Small businesses should therefore settle the important security decisions before credentials are issued. The hiring manager or project owner should state what the person will actually do, which systems and data are required from the first day, whether the person is an employee or contractor, which device will be used and who owns future access changes. Information Technology can then translate those business requirements into the right accounts, permissions, device controls and authentication policy instead of guessing from a job title.

Consider a 70-person accounting firm bringing in three temporary contractors for a year-end project. The quickest option would be to add them to the same finance groups as permanent employees and let them begin from their existing laptops. A safer onboarding process can still move quickly.

Give each contractor a named account, restrict access to the clients assigned to the project, require Multi-Factor Authentication, define which devices can connect, record the project end date and name the manager responsible for approving any additional access. The Federal Trade Commission’s small-business cybersecurity guidance follows the same operating principle by recommending need-to-know access and limiting vendor access to the period required for the work.

The first-login checklist should leave very little to improvisation. By the time the employee or contractor signs in, the business should already know what they can access, why they have it, which device they are using, how their identity is protected and when the permissions will be reviewed. That gives a growing company faster onboarding with far fewer security decisions being made under first-day pressure.

Define Access Around the Work, Not the Job Title

Small and mid-sized businesses should decide what a person needs to do before deciding what systems they can access. Job titles are often too broad to be useful. Two people called “a marketing manager” may have completely different requirements if one only runs campaigns while the other can export customer data, approve budgets and connect new Software as a Service tools. The same applies to developers, finance staff, analysts and contractors. Access should follow the actual tasks, data and actions attached to the role.

Start with a small role-access matrix covering the systems the business uses most. A sales representative may need read-write access to the Customer Relationship Management platform and call software, while finance reports remain outside the role. A developer may need repository and staging access, with production permissions granted separately.

A finance analyst may need accounting and invoice systems, alongside stronger approval controls for banking or vendor changes. Contractors should receive the project tools and folders required for the engagement, with an end date attached from the beginning.

A Practical Access Guide for Common Roles

Secure the Device Before Sensitive Work Begins

Small and mid-sized businesses should decide which devices can access which systems before a new employee or contractor starts handling sensitive information. A managed company laptop gives the business far more control over patching, encryption, endpoint protection, screen locking and remote wipe than an unmanaged personal device. Where personal or agency-managed devices are allowed, the rules should be defined in advance according to the type of work and data involved.

A practical policy can separate lower-risk access from higher-risk access. Browser-based access to email or collaboration tools may be acceptable from an approved personal device for a short period, while finance systems, customer records, source code, Human Resources data and administrative consoles should require a managed device. The source document makes this distinction clearly, including stronger controls for privileged users and tighter restrictions on shared or family devices.

Consider a 150-person professional services firm hiring a remote finance contractor for a three-month assignment. Allowing the contractor to work from a personal laptop may seem convenient, but the access profile matters more than the contract length.

If the role includes invoice data, vendor records or banking workflows, the business should either issue a managed device or require a controlled alternative such as a virtual desktop with restricted local downloads, strong authentication and session controls. That gives the contractor what they need to work without exposing sensitive finance data to an unmanaged endpoint.

The same rule should apply consistently across new hires and contractors. Before access is activated, confirm the device type, security baseline, ownership, operating system status, encryption, endpoint protection and what data can be stored locally. Once those conditions are clear, the business can allow flexibility where the risk is low and apply stronger controls where the consequences of compromise are much higher.

Give Contractors Narrower, Time-Bound Access

Contractor access should be designed around the project from the outset. A freelance developer brought in for six weeks may need a staging environment, selected repositories and one project workspace, while a finance contractor may need access to a narrow set of accounting records or vendor files. The permissions should reflect that scope, carry a clear end date and avoid default membership in internal groups that have nothing to do with the assignment.

The boundaries also need to cover how the contractor works. If the person is using an agency-managed or personal device, the company should be explicit about local downloads, approved storage, file sharing, Artificial Intelligence tools, customer data and whether additional users can be invited into the workspace.

A contractor who is allowed to create automation tokens, sync files into a personal cloud drive or add another freelancer to a project can quietly expand the original exposure unless those permissions are controlled from the beginning.

Consider a mid-sized digital agency bringing in an external developer to help rebuild a client’s website. The developer may need repository access, staging credentials and project files, yet there is little reason to expose production secrets, unrelated client folders or the wider company drive.

Giving that person a project-specific account with Multi-Factor Authentication, restricted repository permissions, an agreed device standard and an automatic expiry date keeps the engagement flexible without turning temporary access into a permanent part of the environment.

The end date should therefore be treated as part of the access decision, not an administrative detail to deal with later. Contractor accounts can be linked to the contract or project period, with renewal requiring an explicit extension from the project owner.

When the work finishes, guest access, shared folders, tokens, repositories, Software as a Service seats and locally stored company data should all have a defined closure path. That keeps temporary relationships temporary and reduces the number of forgotten accounts and permissions that accumulate as the business grows.

Control Software Access Before It Spreads Across the Team

New employees and contractors rarely receive access to only one system. They are usually added to email, chat, file storage, project management tools, Customer Relationship Management platforms, design software, analytics dashboards, code repositories and increasingly Artificial Intelligence tools.

The security risk often grows through the connections between those services, especially when people can create public links, invite external users, export data or connect third-party applications without much oversight.

Set those boundaries during onboarding instead of trying to clean them up later. Decide who can create shared folders, invite guests, approve new Software as a Service applications, connect external tools, export customer data or grant OAuth permissions.

A marketing employee may need broad collaboration access but no ability to install applications across the company workspace. A contractor may need access to one project board and one shared folder, with no permission to invite additional users or connect external storage. The closer those rules are to the actual role, the easier they are to follow.

A mid-sized consulting firm, for example, might onboard a project team that uses Microsoft 365, a Customer Relationship Management platform, a document-signing tool and an Artificial Intelligence transcription service.

If every new hire can create public sharing links, connect third-party apps and invite external users without approval, the access model can become messy very quickly. Restricting those privileges to defined owners while still giving employees the collaboration tools they need keeps the working environment usable without allowing access to expand invisibly.

Ownership also needs to be assigned from the beginning. If a new employee creates a dashboard, shared folder, automation, Application Programming Interface token or project workspace, someone inside the business should know who will take over when that person changes role or leaves. That simple step prevents useful business assets from becoming orphaned and makes later access reviews and offboarding much easier.

Train People Around the Risks They Will Actually Face

Security training should connect directly to the decisions a new employee or contractor will make in the role. A finance hire needs to know how the company verifies changed bank details and unusual payment requests, a developer needs clear rules around secrets and production access, and a customer-support employee needs guidance on sharing files, handling customer information and recognising impersonation attempts.

Generic awareness modules can still provide a baseline, but onboarding becomes much more useful when the examples resemble the situations the person is likely to encounter during an ordinary working day.

The first week should establish a small number of behaviours clearly enough that people can act without searching through a policy. They should know where business passwords belong, which tools are approved, what information can be shared externally, how to handle an unexpected Multi-Factor Authentication request and exactly where to report a suspicious email, lost device or accidental data exposure. Reporting instructions need to be specific because “tell Information Technology” leaves too much room for hesitation when something unusual happens.

A 90-person manufacturing company, for example, might onboard an accounts-payable employee who will begin communicating with dozens of existing suppliers almost immediately. Their security induction should include the company’s process for verifying new bank details, handling an invoice that arrives from an unfamiliar address and escalating a payment request that suddenly becomes urgent.

The same company may give a new design contractor a completely different set of scenarios around client files, personal cloud storage and approved Artificial Intelligence tools. Both people receive cybersecurity training, but the content reflects the decisions attached to their work.

Managers should reinforce these rules inside the workflow during the first few weeks, particularly when an employee encounters a real example for the first time. A short conversation after the first vendor-payment request, external file share or unusual login alert can be more useful than adding another hour of generic training.

By the end of onboarding, every new person should understand how to work securely in their own role and know exactly what to do when something falls outside the normal pattern.

Make Managers Accountable for Access After Day One

The hiring manager should remain responsible for whether an employee or contractor still needs the access they were given during onboarding. Information Technology can create accounts and security teams can define control standards, but the manager understands what the person is actually doing, which projects they have joined and whether their responsibilities have changed. That makes the manager the right person to confirm that permissions still match the work once onboarding settles down.

A useful access review can happen after the first month, when the person has had enough time to discover which tools they genuinely use. The manager should look for systems that were never touched, temporary permissions that can now be removed, missing access that has pushed the employee toward workarounds, and any new folders, dashboards or applications that were added after the original approval. For contractors, the same review should also confirm that the project scope, end date and data access still match the engagement.

Imagine a 200-person logistics company that hires a new operations manager. During onboarding, the employee receives access to the transport-management system, customer records, reporting dashboards and several shared drives because the exact boundaries of the role are still being worked out.

Four weeks later, the manager may discover that two of those shared drives are irrelevant and that the employee only needs read access to one reporting system. Removing those permissions at that point is straightforward. Leaving them untouched for three years gradually creates the kind of privilege accumulation that becomes difficult to explain during a security incident.

The review should repeat whenever the person’s work changes. A move into a new department, temporary assignment, sensitive client project, promotion or contractor extension can all change what access is appropriate.

Managers should confirm the business need at each of those moments, while Information Technology updates the permissions and records the change. This keeps access aligned with real work instead of allowing every permission granted during someone’s time at the company to accumulate indefinitely.

Plan the Exit While You Are Setting Up the Access

Offboarding should be designed at the same time as onboarding because every account, device, shared folder, token and application permission eventually needs an owner and a clean exit path. This matters even more for contractors, temporary staff and project-based specialists, where the relationship may end long before anyone thinks to review the access that was created at the start.

Block’s 2022 disclosure around Cash App shows how serious that gap can become. The company said a former employee accessed and downloaded reports containing information relating to about 8.2 million current and former customers after their employment had ended.

The employee had previously been authorised to access those reports as part of their job, but the later access was unauthorised. Block disclosed the incident in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, making it a useful reminder that access which made sense during employment can become a security problem the moment the relationship ends. (SEC)

For a growing business, the exit plan should cover more than disabling email. Software as a Service accounts, Virtual Private Network access, cloud platforms, code repositories, shared folders, administrator roles, active sessions, Application Programming Interface keys, OAuth grants and remote-support permissions may all need to be removed. Work created by the person should also move to an internal owner, including dashboards, files, customer records, repositories, project documentation and automation workflows.

The cleanest approach is to record those responsibilities when the person joins. A six-month contractor should start with an end date attached to the account, a named manager responsible for renewal, and a clear record of the systems and data involved. An employee changing departments should trigger the same discipline because access from the old role may no longer be appropriate.

By the time someone leaves, Information Technology and the manager should already know what needs to be revoked, transferred, archived or deleted, which turns offboarding into a controlled security action instead of a last-minute search through old tickets and messages.

Build the Cybersecurity Checklist Into the Employee and Contractor Lifecycle

A useful cybersecurity checklist should follow the person from the moment the role is approved through to the point where access is removed. That gives managers, Human Resources and Information Technology one shared view of what needs to happen, instead of treating onboarding, access reviews and offboarding as separate exercises.

The original source already frames this as a joiner-mover-leaver process, and that is the right operating model for a small or mid-sized business because the same permissions granted at the start eventually need to be reviewed, changed or revoked.

The checklist itself can stay compact enough to use in a HR form, IT ticketing workflow or contractor onboarding sheet:

The Cybersecurity Checklist

The detail behind these stages comes directly from the source’s pre-start, day-one, first-week, first-30-day and offboarding controls. For smaller businesses, this does not need specialist identity-governance software to work.

A shared checklist tied to the HR or IT onboarding ticket can be enough if every item has an owner, approval status and review date. As the company grows, the same logic can move into automated identity workflows, but the underlying discipline remains the same.

The final test is whether the business can answer a few basic questions at any point in the person’s lifecycle. What access do they have, why do they have it, who approved it, what device are they using, what data can they touch and how will everything be removed when the relationship changes or ends? If those answers are visible, the checklist is doing its job. If they still depend on old emails, chat messages or a manager’s memory, the process still has gaps.

FAQs

1. What should a cybersecurity onboarding checklist include for a new employee?

A useful checklist should cover identity verification, approved systems, access levels, device requirements, Multi-Factor Authentication, password management, data handling, approved Software as a Service tools, security reporting and the first access review. Each item should connect directly to the person’s role so Information Technology can provision the right access from the beginning.

The checklist should also record who approved the access and when it needs to be reviewed. That becomes especially useful after the employee has been working for a few weeks, when managers can see which permissions are genuinely required and which ones can be removed.

2. Should contractors follow the same cybersecurity onboarding process as employees?

Contractors should follow the same core security principles, with controls adapted to the project and the nature of the relationship. Their onboarding should capture the systems they need, the data they can access, the device they will use, the approved working locations and the expected end date of the engagement.

Project boundaries should remain visible throughout the assignment. A contractor working on one client account may only need a specific folder, collaboration channel and application, while an employee in the same department may legitimately require broader access. Keeping those differences explicit makes later reviews and offboarding much easier.

3. How much access should a new employee receive on the first day?

The employee should receive enough access to perform the work expected during the first few weeks. Managers can define those requirements before the start date and Information Technology can provision an approved role package covering the necessary systems, folders and applications.

Additional access can then be granted as responsibilities become clearer. This approach also gives the business useful information for future hires because repeated requests across people in the same role can gradually improve the standard access package.

4. How should remote employees be onboarded securely?

Remote onboarding should confirm the employee’s identity, device, authentication setup and support channels before sensitive access begins. Company-managed laptops are usually the cleanest option for roles handling customer data, finance information, source code or other sensitive systems because patching, encryption and endpoint protection can be managed centrally.

Employees should also know how legitimate Information Technology support will contact them, where company information can be stored and how to report a lost device or suspicious login. Clear support routes are particularly important when a new employee has never met the Information Technology team in person.

5. Can contractors use their own laptops for company work?

They can where the risk and company policy allow it, although the device requirements should reflect the information being accessed. Low-risk browser-based work may be suitable for an approved personal device, while financial systems, customer records, source code or privileged administration generally justify stronger endpoint controls.

A Bring Your Own Device policy should define minimum requirements such as supported operating systems, encryption, patching, screen locking and restrictions on local storage. The company should also decide what happens to business information stored on the device when the contract finishes.

6. What cybersecurity training should new employees receive?

Training should concentrate first on the situations employees are likely to encounter immediately. New hires should know how to handle passwords and Multi-Factor Authentication, recognise suspicious login requests, use approved applications, share company information safely and report phishing, lost devices or accidental data exposure.

Role-specific guidance can then reflect the actual work. Finance teams can learn the company’s payment-change verification process, developers can cover secrets and repository security, Human Resources teams can focus on employee information, and customer-facing staff can work through impersonation and file-sharing scenarios.

7. When should access be reviewed after onboarding?

An initial review around the first month is useful because the employee or contractor has had enough time to establish a real working pattern. Managers can confirm which systems are being used, remove unnecessary permissions and address missing access that may be creating workarounds.

Further reviews should follow meaningful changes such as promotions, department moves, sensitive projects, elevated privileges or contractor renewals. Access stays easier to manage when each change in responsibility triggers a corresponding review of permissions.

8. Who should be responsible for cybersecurity onboarding in a smaller company?

Responsibility can be shared across the people already involved in onboarding. Human Resources manages the employment trigger, the manager defines the business need, Information Technology provisions accounts and devices, and whoever handles security sets the control standards.

The manager plays an especially important role because they understand what the person actually needs to accomplish. Even when cybersecurity is supported by an outsourced specialist, the internal manager should remain responsible for the business justification behind access.

9. What should happen when an employee changes roles?

A role change should trigger a fresh access review. The manager should identify which permissions belong to the new position, which existing systems remain necessary and which access from the previous role can be removed.

This is also a useful time to review group memberships, shared folders, administrator rights, dashboards, integrations and any temporary permissions accumulated during earlier projects. Treating internal moves as part of the same joiner-mover-leaver process keeps access aligned with the person’s current responsibilities.

10. What should be included in cybersecurity offboarding?

Offboarding should cover every route through which the employee or contractor can still reach company information. That may include email, Software as a Service accounts, Virtual Private Network access, cloud platforms, repositories, shared folders, active sessions, administrator privileges, Application Programming Interface keys and OAuth grants.

Business assets also need an owner after the person leaves. Files, dashboards, tickets, code, customer records and automation workflows should be transferred before access is removed. Planning those responsibilities during onboarding makes the eventual exit much cleaner and reduces the chance of forgotten accounts or inaccessible work.