Free Cybersecurity Policy Template (+ Offboarding Checklist)

Small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) rarely lose data because they forgot to buy security tools. Most data exposure happens when key security controls aren’t consistently applied during high-risk moments like employee offboarding, contractor turnover, or vendor access changes.

A written security policy is necessary to protect data, but it’s not sufficient. Policies fail in the real world when they aren’t tied to repeatable operational controls—the kinds of controls that create clear ownership, evidence, and accountability.

Offboarding is one of the highest-risk moments in the SaaS lifecycle because it combines identity and access changes, such as SSO accounts, MFA resets, and SCIM deprovisioning timing, along with active sessions and API tokens that outlive a password change. 

Together, these factors make offboarding a uniquely dangerous point of failure if it is not handled through structured, repeatable security controls.

That’s why modern cybersecurity policies need a clear, copy-and-paste-ready SecOps policy template, with a SaaS offboarding checklist embedded directly as a required control.

This guide provides both. You can paste the template into a document today, customize a few basic fields, and have an immediately implementable policy by the time you’re done.

How this policy fits into a modern SaaS security program

This cybersecurity policy template is designed to operate as part of a broader SaaS security program. For SMBs managing dozens (or hundreds) of SaaS applications, security controls must be continuously validated across identity, access, data exposure, and third-party integrations. 

This is where SaaS security posture management (SSPM) becomes relevant.This policy establishes the minimum governance layer that SSPM tools validate and enforce in practice. If you’re operationalizing this policy, you may also find our SSPM checklist helpful for ongoing posture validation

Cybersecurity Policy (SecOps) Template

How to use this template

1. Copy the policy text below into a document.
2. Replace bracketed items like [Company Name] and [Security Owner] with whatever’s relevant to your organization.
3. Assign owners for each role.
4. Publish the policy internally and attach the Offboarding Checklist as a mandatory operational control.
5. Review at least annually and after major changes.

1. Purpose and Scope

1.1. Purpose

The purpose of this Cybersecurity Policy (SecOps Policy) is to establish minimum security standards for [Company Name] to protect:

• Corporate identities and access pathways.
• SaaS applications and their administrative consoles.
• Organizational data stored, processed, or transmitted in SaaS environments.
• Shared digital resources (e.g., files, folders, shared drives, mailboxes, and collaboration spaces).

This policy is designed to:

• Define the security responsibilities of employees, contractors, and business units.
• Standardize identity and access control expectations across SaaS tools.
• Reduce risk during high-change events (especially onboarding/offboarding).

1.2. Scope

This policy applies to:

• All employees (full-time, part-time), contractors, and temporary staff.
• All SaaS applications and cloud services used for business operations.
• All corporate devices and personally owned devices approved for work use.
• All third-party vendors and partners with access to [Company Name] data or systems.

2. Definitions

To reduce ambiguity and support consistent enforcement, the following terms are used in this policy:

1. SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) Application

Any cloud-hosted software service used to store, process, or transmit company data (e.g., Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack).

2. SecOps

Operational security practices that ensure security controls are implemented consistently, repeatably, and verifiably across systems and workflows. For practical implementation guidance, see our SecOps management best practices guide for small security teams.

3. Identity Provider (IdP)

The central authentication and access management platform used to authenticate users and enforce access policies (e.g., Microsoft Entra ID/Azure AD, Okta, and Google Identity). 

4. SSO (Single Sign-On)

 An authentication method that centralizes user login through the Identity Provider.

5. SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management) Provisioning

Automated user lifecycle management, including account creation, updates, and deactivation across SaaS applications.

6. User Lifecycle

The provisioning, updating, access review, role change, and offboarding of user identities.

7. OAuth Application / Third-Party Integration

An external or third-party application granted delegated access to SaaS data using authorization tokens and permission scopes.

8. Session / Token

Authentication artifacts that enable ongoing access to a system without re-authentication and may remain valid after a password change.

9. Least Privilege

The principle that access must be limited to the minimum permissions required for a user to perform assigned job duties.

10. Privileged Account

Any identity with administrative rights, elevated permissions, or the ability to change security settings.

11. Business-Critical SaaS

Any SaaS application whose outage, compromise, or data loss would materially disrupt business operations.

12. RTO (Recovery Time Objective)

The maximum acceptable amount of time required to restore access to a system or data after a disruption or loss event.

13. RPO (Recovery Point Objective)

The maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time (i.e., how far back data may need to be restored).

14. Evidence Artifact

A record proving that a control was executed, such as a ticket ID, admin log entry, audit log export, confirmation checklist, screenshot, or termination timestamp.

3. Roles and Responsibilities

Clear ownership prevents the “everyone thought someone else did it” failure mode, especially during offboarding.

3.1. Human Resources (HR)

HR is responsible for initiating and coordinating workforce lifecycle events:

• Initiating onboarding and offboarding requests using the approved ticketing/workflow system.
• Providing accurate, effective dates and timelines (e.g., start date and  termination date/time).
• Notifying IT/SecOps of special conditions (e.g., involuntary termination, suspicious behavior, and litigation risk).

3.2. IT Operations / IT Administrators

IT is responsible for executing technical lifecycle actions:

• Provisioning and deprovisioning identities across systems (preferably via IdP + SCIM).
• Managing MFA enrollment, password resets, and account recovery settings.
• Executing SaaS admin actions required in offboarding (e.g., disabling accounts and revoking sessions).

3.3. Security Owner / SecOps

Security/SecOps is responsible for defining controls and validating execution:

• Defining access and monitoring standards for SaaS applications.
• Reviewing high-risk integrations (OAuth apps, third-party connectors).
• Ensuring offboarding is treated as a security control, not only an HR process.

3.4. Application Owners (Business + Technical Owners)

Every business-critical SaaS application must have an assigned owner:

• Approving user access to their application (role-based approvals).
• Maintaining a list of key shared resources and ownership requirements.
• Validating ownership transfer for shared assets during offboarding.

3.5. Employees, Contractors, and Third Parties

All users must:

• Use company-approved SaaS applications and follow access rules.
• Protect credentials and complete required MFA enrollment.
• Report suspected security incidents promptly.

4. Access Control Standards

Access control is the backbone of an SMB cybersecurity policy template because identity is the gateway to SaaS data.

4.1. Identity & Authentication Requirements

1. SSO is required for all supported SaaS applications. Exceptions must be documented and time-bound.
2. MFA is required for SSO and any direct logins that cannot be routed through SSO.
3. Strong authentication factors are required (e.g., authenticator app, hardware key where feasible).

4.2. Authorization (Permissions) Requirements

1. Access must follow least privilege and be role-based where feasible.
2. Admin access must be restricted to designated IT/Security staff and recorded in an admin access register.
3. Privileged access changes must be tracked through a ticketing system (or a documented approval workflow).

4.3. Access Lifecycle Management

1. All access requests must be approved by the appropriate App Owner (and Security Owner for privileged roles).
2. Access must be revoked promptly upon termination or contract end following the SaaS Offboarding Checklist (Appendix A).
3. Access must be reviewed at least quarterly for critical systems and semi-annually for all others (SMBs can scale this based on tool count and risk).

4.4. Session and Token Control

1. Offboarding must include session invalidation and token revocation where supported.
2. API keys, service accounts, and shared credentials must be rotated when an employee with knowledge of those credentials leaves or changes roles.

5. SaaS Application Governance (Approved Apps, Shadow IT, Third-Party Integrations)

Modern SMB environments are SaaS-heavy. Governance must cover not just “apps we bought,” but also “apps people connected.”

5.1. Approved SaaS Inventory

1. [Company Name] will maintain an inventory of approved SaaS applications used for business operations.
2. Each approved SaaS application must have:

• An identified App Owner.
• An authentication method (SSO/IdP preferred).
• A defined access role model (what roles exist).
• Logging and evidence expectations (what we can export, what we review).

5.2. Shadow IT Control

1. Users may not adopt new SaaS tools for storing or processing company data without approval.
2. When a new SaaS tool is required, users must submit a request including:

• Business justification.
• Data type involved (public/internal/confidential).
• Integration needs (OAuth apps, APIs).

5.3. OAuth / Third-Party App Integrations

1. Connecting third-party apps via OAuth must be reviewed and approved by IT/Security.
2. OAuth apps must be reviewed at least quarterly for high-risk systems (e.g., email, file storage, messaging, and CRM) and semi-annually for others.
3. Offboarding must include the removal of OAuth grants and third-party integrations associated with the departing identity.

6. Logging and Monitoring Expectations

A policy isn’t enforceable if you can’t observe it.

6.1. Minimum Logging Requirements

For critical SaaS applications, logging must be enabled for:

• Login events (success/failure).
• MFA changes and reset events.
• Admin role changes.
• OAuth app authorizations and removals.

6.2. Review Cadence

Security/IT will perform periodic reviews of key logs, focusing on:

• Unusual sign-ins.
• Admin privilege changes.
• New OAuth app grants.

6.3. Evidence Handling

1. When controls are executed (especially offboarding), evidence artifacts must be retained according to the retention rules in the Data Recovery Governance section and relevant legal/compliance requirements.

7. Data Recovery Governance (RTO/RPO Standards)

In SaaS-first companies, data recovery is often misunderstood as something the vendor fully handles. While SaaS platforms are resilient, they don’t guarantee recovery from accidental deletions, overwritten versions, malicious actions by compromised accounts, or mass permission and sharing changes.

7.1. Define RTO/RPO by data tier

1. [Company Name] will define RTO/RPO targets for critical data categories (at minimum: email, files, collaboration content, CRM/customer records, and financial records).
2. Example standard (customize based on your risk tolerance):

• Tier 1 (business-critical): RTO 8 hours, RPO 4 hours.
• Tier 2 (important): RTO 48 hours, RPO 24 hours.
• Tier 3 (non-critical): RTO 5 business days, RPO 72 hours.

7.2. Recovery Testing

• Restore tests must be conducted at least quarterly for business-critical SaaS.
• Tests must validate that data can be restored within RTO and within the data-loss bounds of RPO.
• Results must be documented as evidence artifacts.

7.3. Governance Requirements

1. Each critical SaaS application must have a documented recovery approach that answers:

• What data must be recoverable? (content types)
• Who can initiate recovery? (role and approval)
• How quickly can we recover to meet the RTO?
• How far back can we recover to meet the RPO?

2. Recovery capability must be tested on a defined cadence (e.g., quarterly for Tier 1 and semi-annually for Tier 2).
3. Testing must produce an evidence artifact (ticket + export log + confirmation of restored item).

7.4. Offboarding tie-in

Offboarding is a data governance moment as much as an access moment. The organization must decide, per policy:

• What data is retained?
• What is transferred to a new owner?
• What is deleted?
• What is subject to legal hold or retention obligations?

This reduces the risk of:

• Losing business-critical knowledge when accounts are deactivated.
• Violating retention rules by deleting too soon.
• Retaining too long without justification.

8. Incident Response Alignment

This policy aligns with [Company Name]’s Incident Response (IR) process.

8.1. Minimum IR alignment requirements

1. Users must report suspected incidents immediately to [Security Owner Contact] or the help desk.
2. Incidents involving credential compromise, suspicious OAuth grants, or unusual SaaS admin changes must be prioritized.
3. IR must include steps to:

• Suspend/contain compromised identities.
• Revoke sessions/tokens.
• Review the OAuth app access and remove malicious integrations.

9. Policy Review Cadence and Enforcement

9.1. Review cadence

This policy must be reviewed at least annually and additionally upon significant changes such as:

• A major SaaS platform rollout.
• A security incident involving SaaS access or data exposure.
• New compliance obligations or customer requirements.

9.2 Enforcement

• Violations may result in access restrictions, disciplinary action, or contract termination, depending on severity and local legal requirements.
• Exceptions must be documented, time-bound, and approved by the Security Owner.

SaaS Offboarding Checklist (Policy Control + Operational Appendix)

This appendix is the operational “engine” that makes the policy real. It must be executed for every departing user (e.g., employees, contractors, and third-party accounts).

Offboarding is not just “disable the account.” In SaaS, a user’s access can persist through active sessions, OAuth tokens, shared assets, and delegated app permissions. This checklist is designed to close every major access path and capture evidence.

Appendix A: SaaS Offboarding Checklist Table (Owner / Tool / Evidence Artifact)

How to use

Create a ticket for every offboarding event. Attach this checklist to the ticket. Store evidence artifacts (e.g., screenshots, log exports, timestamps) in a controlled location tied to the ticket ID.

This checklist focuses specifically on offboarding as a high-risk control point. To benchmark your broader SaaS security posture beyond offboarding workflows, see our SaaS security checklist.

App-Specific Offboarding

Different ecosystems handle ownership transfer, retention, and session management differently. Use the checklist above as your baseline, then follow our platform-specific guidance:

1. If You Use Microsoft 365

Follow Spin.ai’s Microsoft 365 terminated employee checklist to ensure mailbox, OneDrive/SharePoint ownership transfer and session controls are correctly handled.

2. If You Use Google Workspace

Follow Spin.ai’s Google Workspace secure employee exit guidance to cover Drive ownership transfer, shared drives, and OAuth app review.

Compliance and Evidence Guidance

Compliance expectations differ by industry and geography, but audit-readiness often boils down to the same question: “Can you prove your controls operated effectively for audit readiness? The offboarding checklist is designed to be provable. 

Below are examples of evidence artifacts that can demonstrate effective execution.

What evidence artifacts prove offboarding happened (and happened correctly)?

1. Ticketing record showing request initiator (HR), termination effective time, checklist completion steps, and sign-off.
2. IdP admin logs proving the user is disabled, MFA has been changed/locked down, and session revocation actions were taken.
3. SaaS admin console logs proving app access was removed, OAuth grants were removed, tokens were revoked, and delegated access was removed.
4. Ownership transfer records proving Drive/OneDrive/SharePoint ownership was transferred and shared collaboration spaces have a new owner.

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