Require employees to use strong passwords (length counts more than complexity)

31 Jul Require employees to use strong passwords (length counts more than complexity)

Password Length + Complexity = Strong Passwords

Strong Passwords.. It’s something that seems to fall on deaf ears in many Workplaces, either staff/owners are lax with security, or that their I.T provider isn’t enforcing strong passwords on accounts.

We manage numerous clients site and enforce complex passwords to ensure security of their workstations, wireless networks and email accounts.

Our own website www.pcfixit.com.au is a WordPress based website and our password is 100 Characters long..  Yes you read right

Password length and complexity is becoming a major problem these days as hackers find more and more ways into systems, As humans we’re creatures of habit and don’t like having to remember numerous passwords, therefore leading to the typical adding of Numbers or Special Characters ( !@#$%%^&* ) etc to the same password.

We recommend using a password generator such as – https://lastpass.com/generatepassword.php

 

We use this to generate our clients passwords and ensure the same passwords are not used on multiple applications within the same site, the issue with this being that if a Hacker works our that password and your using it on all your accounts, that they then have easy access to Emails, Banking, Social Media etc, and many times we’ve seen clients hacked this way cause of complacence with passwords.

So how do you remember all these passwords?

Ourselves we use a Password Management platform, and no it’s not Notes on our iPhone… We use and recommend to our clients LastPass, this is a online based system which is encrypted and enforces 2 Factor Authentication, and also blocks unknown IP’s from gaining access to your account unless you verify it.

 

Lastpass offer a Free and Paid platform dependant on your requirements, both can be found on their website – https://www.lastpass.com/

 

With this post I hope I’ve been open your eyes to Passwords and the need for them to be complex. If you require any help with passwords and improving your I.T Security Policies within your company, give our Team a call on 07 5522 1120.