During an audit, the security administrator discovers that there are several users that are no longer employed with the company but still have active user accounts. Which of the following should be pe

Account recovery is the process of restoring access to a locked or lost account, not a response to inactive former-employee accounts.

Account disablement deactivates the account so the former employee cannot log in, while keeping the account and its associated data intact for auditing and forensic purposes. This is the standard security practice for offboarding because it is reversible and preserves historical records. Deleting the account would destroy audit history, making disablement the preferred approach.

Account lockout is a temporary, automated response to repeated failed login attempts - not an administrative action for deprovisioning former employees.

Account expiration sets a future date for automatic deactivation and would not immediately address accounts that are already active and should have been disabled.