Despite so much being spent on cybersecurity measures, businesses are constantly falling prey to password hacking attempts. Some time back, California passed a law that requires users to change default passwords for IoT devices. This is one of the first US bans of such kind towards default passwords, and the law in California also extends to smart devices used for home security. Businesses are susceptible to cybersecurity breaches, more so because they have valuable data, network assets and resources that hackers are interested in. What does it take to create a strong password? In this post, we are sharing a few tips that every business needs to follow.
- Creating a strong password. A strong password is not merely long, but is complex and cannot be guessed easily. Using uppercase, lowercase letters, with numbers, special characters is the best way to create a password. Gone are times when a six-letter password was considered strong. For business users, a 10-letter password is a must.
- Recommend a password management app. Each employee probably needs to remember and store a dozen different passwords, and if everything had to be noted down, the risks would only increase. A wise idea is to recommend a password management app or tool. These tools will not only help in generating complex passwords, but can also retrieve them.
- Consider multi-factor authentication. Most financial institutions and other big websites are relying on multi-factor authentication to prevent unwanted hacking attempts. The idea is to have more than one layer of password security. It could be a second password, a security question, or even biometrics.
Train your employees
Businesses need to understand that it is necessary to work on cybersecurity measures, and protecting passwords is probably the foremost and easiest step of all. Beyond user accounts, password protection measures must be taken for other network resources, IP cameras and video surveillance systems. It is also necessary to get people involved. Employees are often the weakest link within an organization, and breaches often happen because people are negligent with how they set, use and store passwords. Another aspect that needs attention are privilege accounts, because these often mean more to cybercriminal and hackers, and they would do just about anything to get access. Encourage privilege account users to use strong passwords and ask them to change passwords periodically.
Check online now to find more on the best practices for creating strong passwords.