Is That Vendor Account Still Secure? A Checklist for SaaS & Cloud Access

In March 2025, a forgotten credential led to a very public incident. A threat actor known as “GHNA” published 270,000 customer service tickets from Samsung Germany—data originally stored by a third-party vendor, Spectos GmbH. The breach didn’t rely on advanced exploits or sophisticated malware. It came from a credential that had been compromised four years earlier, never rotated, and never deactivated.

It’s the kind of breach that’s easy to overlook—until it happens to you.

In the world of SaaS and cloud security, third-party access has become a persistent risk. Vendors, consultants, and external partners often have access to sensitive systems but receive far less scrutiny than internal users. When one of those accounts is compromised—or simply left active long after it’s needed—it can quietly become the entry point for a much larger incident.

This checklist is designed to help cloud-first organizations audit third-party access and reduce the risk of the next forgotten login becoming front-page news.

Why Third-Party Accounts Pose a Unique Risk

There’s a dangerous assumption that once vendor access is provisioned, it’s “taken care of.” But as the Samsung-Spectos case shows, vendor credentials can live far beyond their useful life—especially if the access is not actively tracked.

Here’s what makes these accounts uniquely risky:

• Oversight gaps: Third-party users often fall outside routine access reviews
• Credential reuse: Vendors may reuse passwords or share logins across clients
• Dormant risk: Breached credentials can remain unused—and undetected—for years
• SaaS sprawl: In cloud environments, external access is granted across dozens of apps, each with different controls

Without strong hygiene, visibility, and governance, it’s not a matter of if these accounts will be exploited—it’s when.

Vendor Access Checklist for SaaS & Cloud Environments

Use this checklist to evaluate your current third-party access controls. Even if your vendor access seems “under control,” it’s worth checking for blind spots.

1. Credential Hygiene

• Have all vendor credentials been rotated in the past 90 days?
  If not, assume they’re at risk. Rotation should be mandatory, especially for long-term vendor relationships.
• Are there vendor accounts that haven’t logged in for months?
  Dormant accounts are prime targets for attackers. Disable them if they’re no longer in use.
• Is MFA enforced for all third-party logins?
  This is a basic expectation, but still not universal. Without MFA, a single password leak can grant full access.

2. Visibility and Monitoring

• Do you have a central inventory of vendors with access to your cloud and SaaS tools?
  Most organizations don’t. Mapping access is the first step toward securing it.

• Are vendor logins monitored for unusual behavior or access times?
  Just because an account is valid doesn’t mean it’s safe. An attacker can mimic regular usage patterns unless you’re actively watching.

• Are you alerted when a dormant credential is suddenly reactivated?
  That’s exactly what happened in the Samsung case—four years later, with no alert.

3. Scope of Access

• Are third parties granted least-privilege access?
  If a vendor only needs to view reports, they shouldn’t have admin rights. Over-permissioning is still common.

• Are vendor service accounts labeled and managed separately from internal users?
  Service accounts tied to vendors often escape reviews because they don’t look like human logins.

• Is there a policy for temporary access with automatic expiry?
  One way to avoid credential sprawl is to make access time-bound by default.

4. Vendor Offboarding

• Is there a documented offboarding process when vendor contracts end?
  Many organizations forget to clean up access after a project wraps up—sometimes for years.

• Are all related tokens, API keys, and credentials revoked during offboarding?
  Removing a user account isn’t enough if the same credential lives inside an API key or hardcoded integration.

• Do you include third-party access in quarterly or annual access reviews?
  If not, it’s easy for those accounts to slip through the cracks and become long-term liabilities.

The Cost of Ignoring This Checklist

The breach at Samsung Germany wasn’t due to an advanced zero-day exploit or a nation-state attacker. It happened because a vendor account sat unused—and unmonitored—for years. The password had been stolen back in 2021 by an infostealer and was flagged by researchers at the time. But no one rotated the login. No one disabled the account. And no system raised a flag when it was used again in 2025.

That’s what makes credential-based threats so dangerous. They’re quiet, and they rely on your inattention. It also wasn’t Samsung’s credential. It belonged to a third-party vendor. But it still cost Samsung its data—and its customer trust.

How CheckRed Helps You Close These Gaps

At CheckRed, we help organizations proactively identify and reduce risks across their SaaS and cloud environments—including risks from third-party accounts. Here’s how:

• Identity mapping across tools: Know exactly who has access to what—including external users
• Credential leak detection: Get alerts when passwords tied to vendor domains are compromised
• Dormant account monitoring: Spot reactivated or unusual logins in real time
• Access reviews: Easily run audits and enforce offboarding policies
• Third-party risk scoring: Prioritize which vendors introduce the most exposure

The Samsung breach could have been prevented with the right visibility. CheckRed gives you that visibility—before someone else takes advantage of it.

Conclusion

Vendor accounts are an integral part of modern business operations, but they can also represent a significant security vulnerability. A seemingly benign credential today could become an entry point for a breach tomorrow. It’s essential to regularly audit third-party access, ensure proper credential management, and enforce strict access controls to mitigate these risks. CheckRed helps you proactively address these areas and maintain robust security across your cloud and SaaS environments.