Prep for Layoffs Before They Compromise Security

**Executive summary:** Mass layoffs create significant cybersecurity risk as dormant and orphaned credentials, insider threats (including disgruntled employees and leftover AI agents/bots), and unmanaged shadow IT can provide backdoors for attackers; organizations should prepare by improving visibility, following credential governance and NIST practices, using single sign-on and zero-trust/least-privilege controls, automating offboarding where possible, and coordinating HR and IT to prioritize deprovisioning of high-risk and privileged accounts.