The Silent Security Threat: How to Find and Terminate Forgotten “Ghost” Accounts Across Your Cloud Apps

By Rachel Miller | December 4, 2025

Some threats are obvious, while others are subtle. Then there are the ones that linger unnoticed, until they cause problems. Ghost accounts fall into that last category.

These forgotten user profiles, often left behind by former employees, contractors, or test environments, still have access to your cloud tools. They don’t trigger alerts. They don’t log in. They just exist, and in today’s multi-SaaS world, that’s exactly the problem.

Let’s talk about why ghost accounts form, what makes them dangerous, and how you can track them down before they cost you more than you realize.

Why Ghost Accounts Exist, and Why They are a Growing Cloud Risk

We don’t create ghost accounts on purpose. They appear when employees leave but their access remains, or when projects end and no one takes the time to clean up.

What Causes Them?

The biggest culprit is process fatigue. Consider the following scenarios:

A contractor finishes a project, but their account remains live.
An employee is offboarded and IT collects their laptop, but nobody removes access from the half-dozen SaaS tools they used daily.
A test app gets set up with admin credentials, and then no one remembers to remove them.
A marketing team member buys a specialized platform with a company card, and IT has no idea it’s even being used.

Now multiply these scenarios by the 106 SaaS apps the average business manages in 2025, and even a 3% orphan rate leaves you with several access points that no one is watching.

Why Are They Dangerous?

At first glance, abandoned ghost accounts seem harmless. Nobody is actively using them or misusing them, but if they still have valid permissions, they provide attackers with a stealthy entry point. Often, these accounts go unnoticed until after a breach occurs.

According to recent Verizon research, nearly one-third of security breaches now involve third-party access, often through old or unmanaged identities. Inactive credentials can linger for far too long. For example, sensitive information stored in code repositories , like passwords or API keys, can take a median of 94 days to be removed after exposure. That kind of delay creates an opportunity for attackers.

IBM’s breach report shows that the average cost of a security incident in the U.S. now exceeds $10 million. That’s not a number you want to face after someone exploits a stale account to gain access.

Ghost accounts don’t need to actively cause problems to be risky. Simply leaving them unaddressed is enough.

How to Find and Terminate Ghost Accounts Before They Become a Breach

Cleaning ghost accounts up starts with visibility. You can’t remove what you haven’t identified, but the process doesn’t need to be complicated.

1. Know Where to Look

Some of the worst offenders are the easiest to miss. They include:

SaaS platforms that allow direct logins, particularly those not tied to your single sign-on system.
External guests on collaboration platforms like Slack, Teams, or Google Workspace.
Service and automation accounts that were used for testing, integration, or migrations.
Shared credentials created during emergencies that were never properly retired.

If you don’t have a current SaaS inventory, that’s your starting point. Map what’s in use, who has access, and how accounts are provisioned.

2. Define “Inactive”, Then Go Hunting

You’ll need a baseline. For most environments, accounts that haven’t logged in for 60–90 days are a good starting point for review. For API keys or integration accounts, even 30 days of inactivity may be enough to trigger attention.

Generate last-login reports and review license usage. Filter out accounts with no activity, then cross-check them against your HR system. If someone has left the company but still appears active in your cloud apps, that’s a mismatch, and a potential liability.

3. Shut Them Down the Right Way

Termination isn’t simply deleting an account. Be sure to transfer ownership of shared documents, mailboxes, and dashboards before removing anyone. This ensures active teams retain access to the resources they still need.

If you have SCIM or identity lifecycle automation in place, use it. Connect account deactivation directly to HR status changes, it’s the most reliable approach.

For contractors or temporary access, set time-based expirations. This removes the burden of manual cleanup and keeps your environment tidy.

If you notice high-privilege roles lingering, it’s a good time for a role and access review. Reducing over-provisioned accounts today can prevent a major compromise tomorrow.

4. Build the Habits That Keeps Ghosts from Coming Back

Once you’ve cleaned things up, it’s about prevention.

Develop an offboarding checklist that includes removing access to each app.
Conduct quarterly access reviews, starting with your most sensitive or high-cost tools.
Require new apps to support single sign-on and SCIM provisioning.
Restrict admin rights and make least privilege the default, not just a goal.

Ghost accounts may still occur, but good identity hygiene and regular cleanup make it easier to spot and address risks before they lead to exposure.

Reclaim Your Visibility Before the Next Breach Does

Ghost accounts are quiet, but that doesn’t make them harmless. They often slip through unnoticed, not because they’re clever, but because most environments are too busy to spot them. They don’t trigger alerts or make themselves obvious, they just wait. If you haven’t conducted a full cloud identity audit, you could be sitting on dozens of abandoned accounts with active permissions. It’s an avoidable risk, quietly waiting to be exploited.

At Unbound Digital, we help teams stay on top of cloud security by finding hidden access, including ghost accounts, and automatically removing unused accounts across all your apps. Whether you’re growing your SaaS stack, going through a merger, or just want stronger security, this is an easy, high-impact place to start.

Posted in Cyber Security, Security Compliance, Security Practices