February 1st was National Change Your Password day. Did you mark the day by evaluating and updating your insecure passwords? According to a recent study, after all of the media coverage of recent massive data breaches, the most common computer password for 2013 was still our old friend “123456” with close runners up of “letmein”, “iloveyou” and of course “password”.
Insecure passwords create huge security holes and can expose your entire network to cybercriminals and hackers. Mark the passing of National Change Your Password Day by reviewing and enforcing these security best practices:
1) Develop and enforce a strong password policy. How often do you make users change passwords? What are the complexity requirements? (special characters, mix of upper & lower case characters and numbers)
2) Protect your passwords. Don’t create a post-it note cheat sheet, or write your password on a piece of paper under your keyboard. If you have trouble remembering passwords, consider investing in a password/information manager app like Secure Data Manager.
3) Implement 2 factor authentication in your IT environment and on personal accounts. Logging in would not only require a username and password but also a special phrase or keyword known only to the user.
4) Consider implementing a Mobile Device Management Solution for BYOD devices that have access to your network. 73% of SMBs will be supporting BYOD devices this year but only 59% say they have BYOD security policies in place. What happens if an employee leaves the company and has secure data on their phone? What will happen if an employee accesses the company network from an unsecure location like Starbucks? Don’t let the Inmates Run the Asylum.
Implementing a strong password policy is a critical step towards protecting your data from prying eyes. Follow these security best practices both at work and at home as there is no such thing as being too secure.
For more information on solutions for running your businesses’ technology more efficiently, visit our website or contact Megan Meisner at mmeisner@launchpadonline.com or 813 448-7100 x210.