Best practices for password management

Without proper password management, your organization is at risk for identity theft, financial loss, disruption of services, reputation damage, and data loss. Given these risks, it’s important to follow these best practices for password management.

Create complex passwords with a mix of characters

At the very least, your passwords should mix characters, lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and special characters. This mix is essential because complex passwords are much harder to guess.

Use strong and unique passwords for every account

Most people and organizations use the same password for many or all of their accounts. This is a bad practice because hackers can access all your accounts if they can figure out that password. This means you’re putting many accounts at more significant risk. So, avoid reusing passwords across multiple platforms as much as possible.

Enable multi-factor authentication wherever possible

Many programs allow you to set up multi-factor authentication, meaning they require more than one factor to log in – for example, a password and a code that’s been texted to a specific phone. You can set more than two factors on many programs.

Monitor and protect against password breaches

If your credentials are accessed in a data breach, you should confirm the violation and which credentials were compromised.

• Notify affected parties, including law enforcement, if it’s a significant breach.
• Provide advice on how individuals affected by the breach should respond.
• Analyze what happened and learn from it to develop an incident response plan.

Utilize password managers for secure storage

Password managers provide a place to store all your passwords in one place. You will only need to remember one strong master password. Then, the password manager can store and enter your passwords automatically.

Are you worried that your organization lacks effective password management? TeamLogic IT can help you develop a password policy, choose and download relevant software, and train employees. Contact us today.