There are many ways to protect yourself & your organization against cybersecurity threats in today’s online world – and many solutions are simpler than you might imagine. The first line of defense is having a strong password. Having this not only secures your electronic accounts and devices from unauthorized access, but also keeps your sensitive personal information protected.
What makes a good password:
- Long: should be at least 8 characters long
- Complex: Include upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters; avoid sequential characters.
- Unique: Avoid common passwords and never reuse passwords across multiple sites. Using the same password across multiple systems can create more than one vulnerability and this can lead to ‘credential stuffing’ attacks. This is when the attackers use the same credentials to gain unauthorized access to your other accounts.
- Change Passwords: Change passwords only if there’s a known compromise or every 365 days to avoid creating simple variations of existing passwords.1
Use a Password Manager:
It can be difficult to remember a strong password, given the complexity of the requirements, so a password manager tool can help. This software securely stores and encrypts your usernames and passwords, and can generate passwords that meet NIST guidelines or your own criteria.
Typically available as an app or browser plugin (like Okta), it auto-fills login information and can alert you if a password is compromised or reused. Providing employees with a password manager and offering appropriate training encourages them to create a new and unique password for each system, which significantly reduces the risk of security breaches by making it more challenging for threat actors to get in.
Key Takeaways
When creating passwords, make sure they are long, complex and unique. While it can be difficult to remember every password for every website, tools like Password Managers can help make your job easier – and it helps your data secure.
Reach out to your M3 Client Executive to discuss your current protection for your organization and to learn more about cybersecurity risk management.
1 NIST Digital Identity Guidelines
