End-of-Year Security Checklist for Leadership

Before year-end, a few items deserve attention from leadership and security teams. Addressing them now reduces risk and sets you up for a smoother 2026—especially if you have audits or compliance milestones in the first quarter.

Compliance and Audits

Confirm SOC 2, ISO 27001, or CMMC assessment timelines and that evidence is in place. If your audit period closes at year-end, ensure all required documentation and samples are collected and organized. Schedule Q1 audits if you haven't already; auditor calendars fill up quickly. If you're on a cycle that rolls in the new year, use the last few weeks to close any known gaps and update policies so the new period starts clean.

Access and Offboarding

Year-end often brings role changes and departures. Review access for departing employees and contractors: disable accounts, revoke access to systems and data, and recover devices. Document the process so you can demonstrate consistent offboarding to auditors. Run an access review for critical systems—who has admin, who has access to sensitive data—and remove or adjust access that's no longer appropriate.

Backup and Recovery

Verify backups are running and that you've tested restore recently. Ransomware and other incidents don't take holidays; recovery depends on known-good backups. Ensure recovery procedures are documented and that the right people know how to execute them. If you haven't run a restore test in the last 12 months, schedule one for early in the new year.

Plan for Next Year

Set priorities for the next 12 months: framework milestones (e.g., CMMC Level 2, SOC 2 Type II), vCISO or headcount, and key projects (e.g., MFA rollout, detection improvements). A short roadmap helps boards and execs align and ensures security gets appropriate budget and attention. Need help with the checklist or 2026 planning? Contact us.