Modern file sharing makes it incredibly easy to get work done. You click Share in OneDrive or Google Drive, send a link, and the other person gets straight to work. That ease is exactly why this problem exists.
Access is granted in seconds, but removal depends on someone remembering weeks, months, or years later. Most of the time, nobody does. The file or folder gets shared, the job gets done, and nobody thinks about that share again.
The risk does not show up immediately but grows quietly as your business grows.
File Sharing Makes Access Feel Disposable
When you share a file or folder, it feels temporary by nature. It’s just a link, and it feels informal and low-risk.
That mindset sticks, even though the access itself is not temporary at all unless someone makes it temporary. If the link has no expiry and permissions are not manually removed, access continues indefinitely.
This applies whether the person is an internal staff member, an external contractor, or someone helping out for a short period. The system does exactly what it was told to do: it keeps the door open.
Files Change, Access Does Not
The real risk is not someone retaining access to the original file they were meant to see but what that file or folder turns into over time.
A spreadsheet that once contained a handful of customer records may grow into a core database with thousands of entries. A folder that started with a few project documents may become the dumping ground for years of related work.
Anyone who still has access sees everything that gets added later, whether that was intended or not. The share does not know what the person should or should not see. It knows only that it was never told to stop.
Shared Folders Are Worse Than Shared Files
Folders are particularly dangerous, because they grow naturally.
You share a folder so someone can grab a few files. Over time, more documents are added to that same folder, because it feels logical to keep related work together. The original permissions apply to everything inside it.
Months or years later, that folder may contain financials, customer data, internal notes, or strategic documents that were never meant for that original recipient. The access quietly expands without anyone granting it again.
Ex-Employees Often Retain Access Longer Than Anyone Realizes
This problem becomes more serious when the person with access is no longer part of the business.
An employee leaves, their email account is disabled, and it feels like the exit is complete. But shared file access does not always disappear with the account, especially if personal email addresses were used or external sharing was involved.
That former employee may go on to work for a competitor or start a similar business. If shared access was never reviewed, they may still be able to see your files years later without actively breaking into anything.
At that point, the issue is no longer hypothetical.
These Issues Compound Over Time
Each individual share feels small: one file, one folder, one person.
Over the years, those decisions stack up: old links, old permissions, old access nobody remembers setting. The business slowly becomes a sieve, leaking data through dozens or hundreds of forgotten shares.
Nobody set out to create that situation. It is simply the result of convenience combined with growth and a lack of review.
This Does Not Fix Itself
Cloud platforms will not warn you that access no longer makes sense. They assume you meant what you set.
Unless someone actively reviews shared files and folders, checks who still has access, and removes what no longer belongs, the exposure remains. Time only makes it worse, not better.
Most businesses never do this, because it feels tedious, risky, and easy to postpone. Nobody wants to accidentally remove access and break someone's work.
How an MSP Helps Close the Gaps
An MSP adds ownership to something that is usually handled in memory and good intentions.
Access is reviewed deliberately rather than assumed. File and folder sharing is treated as ongoing, not a one-off decision. Access that no longer makes sense is cleaned up carefully so day-to-day work is not disrupted.
Future sharing is handled with greater discipline so temporary access stays temporary rather than becoming permanent by default.
If you want confidence that your files are visible only to the people who should see them, reach out to us. We can help close gaps that have quietly formed and stop new ones from appearing. Call us at 903-347-0073.
