Are your employees’ passwords risking your security?

Your staff are an essential part of your business. They help you care for your customers and build your company into an organization that supports your industry.

When your employees choose simple passwords, they can put your private business information at risk. While it may be convenient for your staff to remember something short and familiar, it could create an easy way for someone to break into your systems.

Here’s what you should know about helping your employees create strong passwords.

What makes a strong password so tough?

There was a time when a strong password simply meant adding a few numbers at the end or using a combination of letters and numbers that was more than six or eight characters. Now that hackers have built systems that can churn through loads of data in seconds, a short password can make getting into your system an easy job.

The key to creating a strong password is using characters that are not easy to guess. When people have specific characteristics they need to include, they will often follow common patterns. For example, when promoted to add numbers, most people will choose the number one.

A strong password will not follow common keyboard paths, like “qwerty” and will not have common phrases, such as “StarWars.”

How can we make our passwords stronger?

One of the best ways to have a truly strong password is to use a password manager. The manager will randomly create a password that does not have any keywords or phrases will be more difficult for someone to try to guess.

When it comes time to remember their generated passwords, you can tell your employees that it is acceptable for them to write them down, as long as they keep their password log on paper (not in a digital document) that they keep in a secure place.

When you and your employees use secure passwords, it can be an extra layer of protection for the information that makes your business successful.