You might know this, but password strength and best practices are one of the most important aspects of your cybersecurity. Here's a scary statistic for you: in 2019, 80% of data breaches were caused by a compromised password. Password best practices are that important. But it's getting increasingly difficult to follow the best advice simply because there are so many passwords.
You have passwords for your personal accounts, like your bank, utilities, and even your email. Then you have passwords for your professional accounts. Many of you may be using your personal email accounts to conduct business. So your password usage crosses between personal and professional.
Providers know that passwords are important so they've stepped up their security protocols. Adding things like secondary and multi-level authentication. These are great features that help protect your data, but it also makes things far more complicated.
Password Managers Are a Necessity for Better Security
Did you know that the average employee has 191 different passwords? Consider that. And then you need to recognize that many of these platforms also need secondary authentication of some method. It's a lot to remember. Most of your employees will forget passwords.
More dangerous, a high percentage of them will reuse the same passwords or similar passwords with slight variations. Those are terrible practices. If you use the same password across multiple accounts, only one needs to be compromised. The bad actor will have access to all the accounts that share that password. And, if they get your email, they can easily change passwords on any account linked to it.
Scary stuff. Especially when you're dealing with a lot of high-end data or even compromising your own personal financial information. So what's the best way to keep all of your passwords unique without forgetting them? By employing a password manager.
A password manager can store all of your passwords, create long, complicated passwords for you and store them, so that you don't have to remember any of the information. All you need to remember is the main password for the manager itself.
Your password manager does the rest. And it's actually more secure because the password manager is making up passwords that have nothing to do with the user personally. One of the top ways hackers access passwords is by using social engineering to "guess" at possible scenarios. It's not possible when the passwords are auto generated.
Choosing Your Password Manager in 2021
There are some great password mangers on the market. Some are free and others have paid services. You should do your own research on the offerings to make sure they have the plans that work for you. Here are a few of the popular ones on the market:
- LastPass. LastPass has a freemium basic plan and the single or family plans are only a few dollars every month.
- DashLane. DashLane has password management for individual users and for businesses.
- Keeper. This password manger has plans for individuals and businesses and is highly rated.
- 1Password. This password manager comes with a range of services for businesses, teams, families, and individuals.
There are a lot of password managers to choose from and any of them would be better than reusing passwords or using faulty, easily guessed passwords.
A password manger can help bolster your cybersecurity and make your life a lot simpler. It's definitely easier than having to reset your password, every time you forget one. Which, let's be honest, your probably do at least a few times every week.
Have a Question? Reach out any time at: Datamagic@datamagicinc.com or 469-635-5500.
