Give vendors named, minimum, time-bounded access with a company owner; avoid sending master credentials and remove every access path when the engagement ends.
Direct answer: Give vendors named, minimum, time-bounded access with a company owner; avoid sending master credentials and remove every access path when the engagement ends.
Approve scope before access
Record the vendor, internal sponsor, business purpose, systems, role, start date, end or review date, data sensitivity, and whether subcontractors are involved. Prefer a vendor-specific account or native agency role over an employee’s identity.
We can quickly review your setup and show you what’s working and what needs improvement.
Use the IT Cost Savings Calculator to estimate annual waste from recurring support drag, outages, emergency work, and security cleanup before you decide what to prioritize.
Limit privilege and recovery
A web developer may need CMS access without domain-transfer or billing rights. A bookkeeper may need accounting access without company email administration. Keep recovery and ownership under the company, require MFA, and avoid placing vendors in broad employee groups.
End the relationship completely
Disable accounts, remove roles and vault groups, revoke sessions, tokens, API keys, remote access, OAuth applications, and support tools, then transfer files and ownership. Rotate exposed shared secrets and confirm whether the vendor created accounts or integrations that the company must retain.
The controls that make password management work
A vault is useful only when the surrounding operating model is clear. Start with named accounts and native delegated roles wherever a platform supports them. Keep recovery email addresses, phone numbers, billing ownership, and administrator roles under company control. Use unique credentials, require MFA on important systems, secure the devices that open the vault, and document who approves access.
When a truly shared login cannot be avoided, assign a business owner, restrict it to the smallest practical group, and record what should happen when a person changes roles or leaves. A password manager strengthens this workflow; it does not replace endpoint protection, email security, backups, monitoring, policies, or employee training.
Practical implementation checklist
- Inventory the systems your organization actually uses and assign a business owner.
- Prefer named accounts, SSO, and native delegated roles over shared master logins.
- Store unavoidable shared secrets in an approved company vault with limited group access.
- Require MFA on email, the vault, administrators, finance, remote access, and other critical systems.
- Keep recovery methods, billing, domains, and foundational administrators under company control.
- Document employee, vendor, role-change, emergency, and offboarding workflows.
- Review stale administrators, former users, exposed credentials, integrations, and exceptions.
- Test recovery and incident procedures before an urgent event.
Where NordPass may fit
NordPass is one third-party business password-management option Sun Life Tech recommends evaluating. Current provider documentation describes encrypted vaults, password generation, autosave and autofill, multi-device access, secure sharing, activity visibility, and passkey support. Business capabilities such as Shared Folders, Groups, password-health reporting, breach monitoring, or provisioning may depend on the current plan.
Verify current features, platform support, plan eligibility, data-handling requirements, and commercial terms directly with NordPass before purchase. A product decision should follow an access inventory and implementation plan—not substitute for them.
Continue building the program
- Password Security & Business Credential Management hub
- How to share business passwords securely
- Employee access and offboarding checklist
- Password manager vs. MFA
- Business password risk check
Recommended resources
These pages map directly to the services and next-step resources behind this topic.
Sun Life Tech can help inventory access, improve MFA, build onboarding and offboarding workflows, and connect password management to endpoint, email, backup, and monitoring controls.
FAQ
Quick answers to common questions.
No when named or delegated access is available. Separate identities improve scope and removal.
The company should retain oversight and ownership; delegated administration should be narrowly authorized and reviewed.
At scope changes, contract milestones, personnel changes, and a scheduled interval based on risk.
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