Summer Access Security: Protecting Your Business While Employees Vacation

Your employee might be out of office, what about their user account?

Summer is an ideal time to quietly strengthen your defenses—starting with user account reviews and behavioral monitoring.

When employees are on vacation, their accounts are often inactive or set with auto-replies. But if an account shows unusual behavior during that time—such as logins from unexpected locations, file downloads, or privilege escalations—it could be a sign of compromise or insider misuse.

Steps to Take:

• Audit account access: Review who has access to sensitive systems, and whether it’s still needed.

• Monitor inactive users: Flag accounts that are supposedly on leave but show activity.

• Check login patterns: Look for logins from suspicious IP addresses or times inconsistent with normal usage.

• Set temporary deactivations: Disable access for long-term absences when possible.

• Review admin actions: Pay close attention to changes made by privileged accounts, especially if the user is out of office.

• Enable alerts for anomalies: Use SIEM or EDR solutions to trigger alerts for unusual behavior.

Why it matters:Threat actors often use dormant or poorly monitored accounts to stay undetected. Vacation periods provide them with the silence they need.

By auditing now, you not only reduce risk—you also get a cleaner, more accountable access environment heading into the second half of the year.