I Found 9 Active Admins on a Google Sheet

You’re moving fast. You’ve got files to share, projects to delegate, vendors to coordinate with. So someone says, “Just give them access.” And they do. Admin access, no less.

It seems harmless, until you check the permissions on a single Google Sheet and see that half the company, a couple of vendors, and a random Gmail account all have full control. And no one even knows who added them.

This isn’t an edge case. It’s common.
According to IBM’s 2024 Cyber Resilience Report, 62% of breaches in SMBs stem from misconfigured or excessive access rights. Most of them go undetected until it's too late.

If you’re not actively managing who has access to what—especially admin-level access—you’re not just risking data. You’re risking operations, compliance, and trust.

At Notics, we see this all the time. Admin rights granted for convenience. No review process. No automation. No accountability. We fix that by embedding our IT team directly into your operations—proactively cleaning up permissions, setting the right guardrails, and giving your team secure, structured access that doesn’t rely on shortcuts.

In this post, we’ll break down why uncontrolled access is more dangerous than most growing companies realize, what you can do to fix it, and how to prevent it from happening again.

Too Many People Have Admin Access, What’s the Risk?

This isn’t about a spreadsheet. It’s about what the spreadsheet represents: a pattern of unmanaged, excessive access.

Here’s what we typically find:

• Former employees still have admin permissions
• Vendors or contractors granted admin for “temporary” use
• No central owner for access reviews or permission management
• Admin access granted as a shortcut instead of assigning the right role

Most businesses don’t track admin access across platforms like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Dropbox, or Slack. So they don’t realize how many people can:

• Invite new users
• Edit or delete sensitive documents
• Change sharing settings
• Remove audit trails

According to a 2023 Varonis report, 76% of SMBs had over-permissioned access in their cloud environments, and 58% of sensitive files were open to more people than necessary.

The business impact?

• Security breaches: Anyone with admin rights becomes a high-value target.
• Compliance violations: Especially under HIPAA, SOC 2, or CCPA.
• Operational disruption: Files get deleted. Data gets leaked. No one knows who did it.
• Accountability gaps: When something goes wrong, you’re left guessing who had the keys.

5 Ways to Prevent Admin Sprawl in Your Business

1. Limit Admin Rights by Role, Not by Default

What it is: Role-based access control (RBAC) defines who can do what, based on their job, not convenience.

Why it matters: Giving admin rights “just in case” is a shortcut that creates long-term risk.

How to implement:

• Create permission templates for each department
• Assign access by job title, not individual request
• Review those roles every 6 months

Business impact: Reduces unnecessary exposure, ensures people only access what they need, and strengthens internal accountability.

2. Automate Offboarding

What it is: A defined process to revoke access the moment someone leaves the company.

Why it matters: It’s easy to forget to remove access manually. Automation removes the human error.

How to implement:

• Link HR and IT systems through identity management tools
• Use automated triggers to deactivate users and licenses
• Log all deprovisioning steps for audit purposes

Business impact: Protects your data, closes doors quickly, and reduces the window for misuse after departure.

3. Run Quarterly Access Reviews

What it is: A recurring process to review and clean up permissions.

Why it matters: Access needs change. What someone needed in January might be risky by July.

How to implement:

• Pull permission reports from tools like Google Admin or Microsoft Entra
• Work with department leads to validate or revoke access
• Document every change and schedule the next review

Business impact: Keeps your access map accurate and ready for internal or external audits.

4. Use Centralized Access Management Tools

What it is: Software that helps you see and manage access across your cloud tools in one place.

Why it matters: You can’t protect what you can’t see. Most breaches come from platforms where no one’s watching.

How to implement:

• Deploy tools like BetterCloud, Torii, or Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
• Set alerts for privilege escalation (e.g., someone suddenly becoming an admin)
• Regularly scan for external sharing and dormant accounts

Business impact: Gives IT visibility, saves time, and helps catch access risks before they turn into incidents.

5. Apply the Principle of Least Privilege

What it is: Every user gets the minimum access necessary to do their job.

Why it matters: The fewer doors someone can open, the lower the risk of something going wrong—accidentally or intentionally.

How to implement:

• Default everyone to “Viewer” or lowest-tier roles
• Require a justification process for elevated access
• Automatically downgrade access after project completion or inactivity

Business impact: Builds a culture of security while maintaining productivity and agility.

Conclusion: The Access You Ignore Is the Risk You Inherit

If you haven’t checked who has admin access lately, you’re not alone. But that doesn’t make it safe. What feels like a simple convenience—giving everyone full access—can quickly spiral into exposure you didn’t see coming.

Access isn’t just a technical issue. It’s a leadership one. It’s about who you trust with control, who’s responsible for oversight, and how seriously you take your company’s digital boundaries.

At Notics, we don’t wait for the spreadsheet to become a headline. We partner with growing companies to clean up access, lock down sensitive assets, and implement scalable systems that grow with you.

Now’s a good time to ask yourself: When’s the last time you reviewed who has admin access to your files? If you don’t know—start there.

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