The Small Team Challenge

Small teams face a unique credential management challenge: they need the security of enterprise systems with the simplicity of individual tools.

Common problems include: • Root passwords stored in one person's head • Shared credentials sent via Slack or email • No offboarding process for credential revocation • Service accounts with personal email addresses • No audit trail for who accessed what

These problems compound over time, creating a tangled web of insecure, undocumented credential dependencies.

A Practical Credential Management System

1. Team Password Manager: Deploy Bitwarden Organizations or 1Password Business. These provide: • Shared vaults organized by team/project • Role-based access control • Audit logs of all credential access • Emergency access features • Secure credential sharing without copy-paste

2. Service Account Ownership: Every service account should be registered to a team email alias (admin@yourcompany.com), not a personal email. This ensures access survives employee transitions.

3. MFA for Everything: Enable MFA on all services. Store backup codes in the team password manager.

4. Break-Glass Accounts: Create emergency admin accounts for critical services. Store these credentials in a ZeroLatch vault with a dead man's switch, accessible to the company's designated successor.

5. Offboarding Checklist: When someone leaves, immediately: • Remove their access to the team password manager • Rotate all credentials they had access to • Remove their accounts from all services • Update any personal API keys or tokens

Credential Categories

Organize credentials into risk-based categories:

Critical (Compromise = Business-ending) • Cloud infrastructure root accounts (AWS, GCP, Azure) • Domain registrar access • Banking and payment processor credentials • Database admin access → Restricted to 2-3 people, backed up via dead man's switch

High (Compromise = Major disruption) • Email admin, Google Workspace / Microsoft 365 admin • CI/CD pipeline credentials • Client-facing SaaS admin accounts → Available to relevant team leads

Standard (Compromise = Moderate impact) • Social media accounts • Marketing tools • Analytics platforms → Available to relevant team members

Low (Compromise = Minimal impact) • Internal wiki • Project management tools • Team communication → Available to all team members