As we all know, hackers are always trying to infiltrate the networks of small and medium-sized businesses because those target firms have valuable information worth good money to the hackers. These criminals often target small and medium-sized businesses more often than large corporations because, typically, the smaller businesses don’t have the budgets for cybersecurity like large corporations do, hence making it easier for the hackers to infiltrate those smaller targets if the companies are not properly prepared. One of the best things that you, as a business owner, can do to protect your company is to require your employees to have strong password habits. Below are some tips on good password hygiene.
Avoid using common words in your passwords.
When creating a password, we’ve all been stuck in the predicament where we choose the simplest password to remember like QWERTY or Password1234¸ but what are the consequences of doing this? This lazy choice makes it easier for hackers to gain access to your personal account information which in turn can allow access to the company’s entire network. So, instead of using the name of your pet, birthday, or your nickname as your password, it’s much safer to take time to think of a creative password.
A strong password is also a long password.
Along the lines of having a password that is not easily guessed, security experts recommend that passwords of all employees be at least eight characters in length. The increased length has been found to make it harder for hackers to infiltrate. It’s recommended that you require your employees to use a password that is an unusual phrase of three unconnected words for added security.
Don’t reuse passwords.
Yes, in your company, employees probably have quite a few login credentials that they are required to remember, so commonly, your employees might be reusing passwords for different platforms. Well, this is especially dangerous for your company because if a hacker gains access to one platform by using a password that is also the password for another platform, that can cause havoc in your company because the hacker didn’t gain access to just one platform but to multiple platforms. It’s essential to have a company policy that forbids employees from reusing passwords from one platform on another.
Use two-factor authentication.
A newer procedure that increases the security of platforms is called two-factor authentication. This entails being sent a text with a unique security code to verify your identity when logging in on the desired platform. In your company, all employees should use a form of two-factor authentication to reduce the likelihood of a hacker gaining access to a company platform.
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