Cybersecurity is more than just having a policy in place, or merely ensuring that your company is compliant to necessary data protection & privacy laws. It’s extremely imperative for businesses to never let their guard down, because hackers and cybercriminals are often looking for existing security flaws and vulnerabilities. A considerable number of breaches occur because businesses don’t take password protection measures seriously. It doesn’t take long for an experienced hacker to hack password that has been carelessly created. In this post, we are sharing the best cybersecurity steps for password protection.
- Change default usernames and passwords. No matter whether you are deploying IP cameras, or a new software for payroll, you have to change the default details as soon as the installation is done. Keep in mind that default passwords such as ‘12345’ or ‘abcde123’ are super easy to crack, and hackers don’t even need experience for that.
- Create strong password. Long passwords are always better when it comes to cybersecurity. A strong password should have at least 10 or 12 characters, must use uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Ensure that employees are aware of what it takes to create strong passwords.
- Never reuse passwords. It’s often a lazy thing that employees do, where they use the same password for different resources, accounts and devices, primarily because one password is easier to remember and manage. Ensure that passwords are never reused, and every resource should have a unique one.
- Recommend a password manager. When an employee is required to manage 10 or 15 different passwords, it’s hard to do so manually, and that’s exactly where a password management tool comes in handy. Ensure that you suggest a password manager that’s reliable and known.
- Focus on added security. In recent times, brute force attacks have increased considerably, and to prevent that, your business can enable the lockout feature. When someone uses the wrong password for more than three to five times, the account will get locked for a specific time.
- Multifactor authentication can help. From using biometrics, to security questions, codes sent to personal number, and other options, there are various ways to enable multifactor authentication, which ensures further password protection.
Not to forget, ask employees not to use personal or official information in their passwords, because these are easy to crack. Passwords should be random and absolutely hard to remember, and for their ease, they can rely on the password manager.