Introduction

As the reliance on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications grows, proper termination procedures are vital for security. However, they are often overlooked, leaving gaps in defenses. According to this article 56% of enterprise apps aren’t managed, meaning no one pays close attention to things like renewal dates, licenses, app usage, security, and compliance. Without planned and documented offboarding processes, organizations risk data breaches, regulatory non-compliance, and business disruption.

By prioritizing termination early on, organizations can reduce risks and complexity when the time comes to sunset legacy SaaS solutions. The human and financial toll of rushed, ad-hoc offboarding make strong termination hygiene essential to enterprise cloud security.

Termination Process

Internal Processes

Notify all users of service termination: This prevents continued access that could lead to data exfiltration after offboarding.
Disable all API access: API access can allow computers/apps to still connect to terminated services and poses security risks.
Guidelines on replacement or data extraction: Outlining transitions ahead of time avoids business disruptions and errors during sensitive data migrations.
Extract data for future usage or migration to new service: Failing to fully retrieve critical data creates compliance issues and causes operations bottlenecks.
Where to store and who is responsible? Unclear data ownership introduces confusion around access controls and encryption.
Ensure all integrations/data flows into other systems is understood: Hidden integrations with other apps can unpredictably expose data after termination.

Data Retention

Destruction of backups and residual data/metadata (e.g., system logs, audit logs, access logs, search indices): Leftover data can still be targeted by attackers and contains sensitive internal metadata.
Data retention timeframe should satisfy data classification requirements: Keeping data past mandated deletion intervals will violate compliance regulations.
Exporting and removal of financial information: Financial data requires special security precautions during migrations to prevent fraud.
Exporting of usage and other reports: Usage reports may contain details that pose compliance risks if leaked externally.

Return of Assets

Export of data/metadata (e.g., audit logs, access logs, backups): Retaining activity records is vital for security monitoring and investigations.
Comply with data location requirements: Storing data in non-approved regions can violate data sovereignty laws.
Acceptable data formats: Incompatible formats can slow incident response and reduce usability for security tools.
Delivery time, method, accessible for how long: Data that is inaccessible past set times impedes auditability and eDiscovery requests.

Decommission Service: Specific Attachments

Service-specific monitoring: Keeping intact connections allows lingering visibility of potentially sensitive data.
Security monitoring of service: Ongoing monitoring is required to ensure decommissioning fully executes.

Service Management

Removal of all integrations with service: Integrations can inadvertently reactivate disabled accounts and functions.
Ensure decommissioning of service: Active accounts must be rendered fully inactive to prevent unauthorized access.
Ensure closure of the contract: Contracts may permit providers ongoing data rights or require certain destruction certification.

Conclusion

As organizations continue to adopt the cloud and SaaS solutions at record speeds, properly planned termination procedures have become an indispensable pillar of cloud security. Failure to deactivate, export, and wipe data as well as access pathways when offboarding apps invites preventable yet severe risks ranging from noncompliance to data theft. By ensuring security best practices are baked into every phase of the SaaS management lifecycle, offramping procedures can help organizations continue to safeguard their most critical systems and data assets when transitioning between services.

Reference Article