17 December 2017

Password Security – are you the weakest link?

Every day there are stories about the latest business to suffer from a cyber attack. Businesses install quality security software and password protected servers to guard against cyber threats and protect precious data. However, the weakest link in your IT security could be your employees and the strength of the passwords they use to log in to your cloud based systems.

How can you protect yourself and improve password security?

A huge problem for businesses is that people use passwords which they can easily remember, such as password123 (one of the most commonly used). More sophisticated security means users often have to include special characters, so perhaps they are now using p@ssword123. This isn’t going to be enough to secure your IT systems.

With an increase in companies moving towards cloud based software for business operations and accounting, more systems require a login and password. As a result, many firms provide IT security training to their staff, encouraging the use of more complex passwords. This is great, unless the team members start writing their passwords down and leaving them on their desk.

You can encourage people to use complex, more secure passwords that they can easily remember by using a password manager and generator, to keep you extra safe in the cloud.

Password managers

A password manager and generator is a piece of software that generates secure passwords for all relevant accounts and stores them securely either on their server or in the cloud or locally on your PC. The software will encrypt and store password information so you only have to remember one password for the password manager itself.

Password manager and generator services are available online from the likes of LastPass, Dashlane or KeePass Password Safe. Larger businesses might want to use an enterprise level system such as Sticky Password from AVG.

Ideally though, two factor authentication using not just a password but also something that only the user has on them, such as a fingerprint, data stick or text message verification, for example, is the most secure option.

Are you concerned about managing passwords and whether cloud accounting is safe for your business?

The views provided in this article are for general information purposes only. Nothing in this article represents advice of any nature whatsoever. Accordingly, RWB CA Limited does not accept any liability or responsibility for the information contained in this article or any decision or other action that may be taken in reliance upon the information contained within it. RWB CA Limited accepts no responsibility for any errors of fact or opinion and assumes no obligation to provide you with any changes to its assumptions.