“Hey, what’s the password for the marketing tool again?”

It is a phrase heard in small business offices every single day. Maybe it’s shouted across the room, scribbled on a sticky note attached to a monitor, or sent via Slack to a group chat.

It seems innocent enough. You have a team, you trust them, and you want them to get their work done quickly. Using a single login (like [email protected] or admin) for everyone saves money on user seats and feels convenient.

However, in the world of cybersecurity, convenience is often the enemy of safety. If your team is sharing passwords, you aren’t just cutting corners; you are creating a security black hole that could swallow your business.

Here is why it is time to stop sharing passwords and start taking Access Control seriously.

The Shared Account Nightmare

The “one login for everyone” strategy works fine—until it doesn’t. The moment a security incident occurs or personnel changes happen, the cracks in this system turn into gaping holes.

There are two massive problems with shared accounts:

1. The Offboarding Headache Imagine an employee leaves your company, perhaps on bad terms. If they were using a personal account, you would simply deactivate their email. But if they were using the shared admin login? They still have the keys to the castle.

To secure your business, you now have to change the password for every shared tool that the former employee accessed. Then, you have to distribute that new password to the remaining team members. It is a logistical mess that wastes time and disrupts productivity.

2. The Mystery of “Who Did That?” This brings us to a critical security concept: Non-Repudiation.

In plain English, non-repudiation means having the ability to prove who took a specific action. You need an audit trail.

If five different employees all log in using the username “Admin,” and one of them accidentally deletes your entire customer database, who is responsible? Was it John? Was it Sarah? Or did a hacker guess your password?

When you share accounts, you will never know. You cannot hold anyone accountable, and you cannot train the person who made the mistake because they are hiding behind a generic login.

The Fix: One Person, One Login

The solution is simple, though it requires a shift in mindset: Everyone gets their own seat.

Every employee should have their own unique login credentials for every piece of software they use.

• Accountability: If a file is deleted, the system logs will tell you exactly which user did it.
• Security: If someone leaves, you revoke their specific access with one click. The rest of the team keeps working without interruption.

“But what if we need to share access to a tool?”

If you have a tool that doesn’t support multiple users (or is too expensive to buy seats for everyone), use a Password Manager (like 1Password or LastPass). These tools allow you to share access to a website without ever revealing the actual password to the employee. They can log in, but they can’t copy the password or take it with them when they leave.

Clean Up Your Access Control

Giving every employee their own account might cost a little more in subscription fees, but it saves you a fortune in potential security breaches and management headaches.

Make the rule today: One person. One login.