Cyber Security – Passwords

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19 November 2018

With the impending arrival of Christmas and most retail stores jumping on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday wagon, we wanted to discuss with you the importance of using secure passwords both online and offline.

Have you ever thought about how many different accounts you log into every day?  Not just work applications, but online websites.  Everything these days now seem to require passwords before you can move any further on their applications/sites.

So how on earth are you expected to remember them all?  Well at b-compliant we use a password manager, as recommended by security experts.

What are password managers, exactly?

In an age where we all have that many different passwords that we tend to use the same, easy to remember one for multiple sites, password managers allow you to step away from this.  Password managers act as a vault for your passwords where you can store them all securely until you need them.

They also include a feature to generate strong secure passwords for you (you know the ones, Uppercase letter, lower case letter, number, special character – The type of passwords that are impossible for us to remember).  This for a business security point of view is an amazing feature.

Once you have ‘used password’ on the website that you are creating an account, it will then pop up asking if you want to save it to your vault.  Click yes and it will then be saved for you to access again and again.  Most password managers also have mobile apps that sync with your desktop data, so you can use them on the go.  Dependant on the security you have on your phone, for example, the iPhone X uses facial recognition when you want a password to be entered, it will scan your face to ensure it is you and then allow the password to be entered.

It is believed that encryption on password managers is so strong that it might take hackers between decades and forever to crack.

We would always recommend that you conduct your full due diligence when choosing a password manager.  Security experts do say to not overthink it and choose a named brand (such as LastPass, KeePass, 1Password), but it largely comes down to you.  You need to find one that works for you otherwise you run the risk of not using it at all and sticking to your bad habits of unsecured easy to guess passwords.

But cybersecurity goes much further than just implementing a password manager.  Company data is so valuable, especially for advisers like yourself as it isn’t just your company data, you also have the interests and privacy of your clients.  This should always be at the forefront of your mind.

We are completing a series of blogs around security on the run-up to the New Year.  Check back next week for the next instalment, or subscribe for it to be delivered directly to your inbox.