While still imperative to get right, passwords aren’t nearly as secure as you would expect them to be. They can be guessed (especially if proper password practices haven’t been followed), stolen in data breaches, or phished from a well-meaning employee.
Passwords are essentially the lock built into the front door of a building. They’re enough to keep out honest people, but what about the people who are willing to go to the deep web and 3D print the master key to the type of lock you use?
A successful business is a secure business. You probably have a good lock on the front door, maybe an alarm system, and secure cabinets for critical documents. You do all of this to protect your business' physical assets from threats. So why wouldn't you do the same for your digital assets?
Just as you have physical security measures, your company also needs strong cybersecurity policies. They help create clear rules for employees to follow and a plan to fall back on if an incident occurs.
Tips are great as long as they actually work. Business owners need more technology tips than just about anything else, whether that is app-specific or general care of technology. Macro Systems tries to do our best to offer useful tips a couple of times a month, but this week we wanted to focus on what is probably the most critical tip we can provide.
Fairly recently, news circulated that a data breach had exposed 16 billion passwords for numerous logins, including social media accounts, virtual private networks, corporate tools, and more. Effectively, every online service imaginable was represented in this breach.
This is very bad… arguably unprecedented.
That being said, this impression is at best misleading. Listed below is a look into the truth of the matter, while still acknowledging that there are some lessons to be learned.
Running a business is already confusing enough without worrying about security at all times. Whether you own a small business or a multi-level enterprise, security is just as imperative for all the same reasons. Listed below are a couple of security strategies you can implement today to feel better about the current state of your infrastructure moving forward.
Passwords are the most critical security tool used to secure digital assets. They are imperative for small businesses, as weak or mishandled credentials can lead to serious security issues. Everyone must comprehend and follow the best practices for creating and managing passwords.
Passwords protect nearly all of your accounts... or at least you hope that they do. Alas, making a super-secure password that’s easy to remember can be harder than people expect. Oftentimes, it feels like you are constantly solving a puzzle. So then, how do you create passwords that keep hackers out without driving yourself insane? In this month’s newsletter, we discuss this very problem.
The Disney brand has long cultivated an image of magic and wonder. That being said, this image has yet to materialize any magical effects in reality. For example: people still suffer from food allergies while visiting Disney’s various parks.
This makes it especially dangerous that a former Disney employee was allegedly still able to access a specialized menu-planning app and make alterations, like changing prices, adding language that Disney certainly would not approve of, switching text to the unintelligible “Wingdings” font, and worst of all… changing menu information.
Passwords have long been one of the central pillars of account security on the Internet. Combined with a username, they make up the foundation of most login systems. Because of this, they are a hot commodity for hackers who want to steal credentials and infiltrate accounts or networks. However, in recent years, other security measures have exposed the weakness of poor passwords for security, leading to the adoption of other measures.
Passwords are the keys to digital access, but they're often not treated as keys; they aren’t always protected by their users. Alas, people don’t always do everything they can to protect their passwords and there are a lot more scammers out there than pickpockets.
Effective password management is imperative for any organization. It works to maintain the security of online accounts and sensitive information. Listed below are five ways to control and enhance your password management.
One of the reasons that information technology keeps evolving is for the sake of the user and their convenience using it. That being said, if this convenience comes at the sacrifice of your business’ cybersecurity, it just isn’t worth it. This is the crux of why we always recommend that any company seeking to use password management should invest in a reputable password management software, rather than the built-in capabilities of modern browsers.
Whether you love them or hate them, passwords serve a critical purpose in the realm of cybersecurity. They are the first line of defense against potential threats, yet they are also notoriously easy to crack. Some of the biggest names in technology have been working on ways to get around the challenges presented by password security, including one that we are excited to highlight in today’s blog.
Simple passwords are often the bane of a business’ existence. If you routinely use strings like Password, 123456, Guest, or Qwerty to secure an account, then you need to reexamine your password practices before they result in a data breach. A good password can go a long way toward helping you in this effort.
Password less authentication has been increasingly spoken of in favor of the usual password-based method, and is gaining traction the more it is talked about. Google recently took steps toward password less that warrants some discussion.
User authentication is an imperative security feature for a business, specifically because it helps to reduce a significant threat to your business. This is why we’re so adamant that you should require multi-factor authentication wherever it is available… but is a better way to authenticate your users on the horizon?
Passwords have been a primary data security measure since 1960, when MIT researcher Fernando Corbató suggested the practice, although even he is reportedly slow to take full credit. Why? Well, if you ask Corbató (and his contemporaries, who were the first to implement passwords as we’d recognize them today), the security concerns were limited.
So, have we reached the point where it would be best to replace passwords as the default authentication measure?
Keeping a secure password is a little confusing these days, especially when the standards for what is an acceptable, complex password seem to keep shifting back and forth. Let’s take a look at some of the industry-standard best practices for passwords and how you can implement them for your business.
Most accounts these days require a password and, as such, the average user has countless of these codes that need to be kept secure. Some web browsers have built-in password management tools to help make them more user-friendly, but with so much convenience involved, one has to ask whether or not these built-in management tools are as secure as they should be.
If you were told that one variable was responsible for more than 80 percent of cyberattacks, what would you guess that variable was? If you guessed “stolen access credentials,” you’d be right. The standard username/password combination may soon be a relic of the past as more tech companies transition to alternative authentication measures.
The password is the primary element of both data security and user authentication; this makes the construction of them extremely imperative to protecting digital assets. Alas, not everyone comprehends how to construct passwords that actually work to protect the information on the other side. Listed below is a discussion on how to create a solid password that works to keep your digital resources safe.
