3 huge password disasters
Three huge but common password disasters are being committed every day by your staff.
And now a local IT security expert is warning bosses to check for them… then take urgent action to protect their business.
“We see these disasters happening all the time. People don’t realise how dangerous they are,” said John Miller, of Smarter Technologies Ltd.
“Recently a major credit bureau was hacked in South Africa because its server’s password was the word ‘password’.
“And data was also stolen from graphics card maker NVIDIA. One of most common passwords used by its employees was… ‘nvidia’.
“These big business disasters are easy to laugh at. But I see disasters like these being made by staff working for small businesses every day.”
John’s top three password disasters are:
- Using easy to guess passwords such as ‘password’, ‘qwerty’ or ‘123456’. These can be cracked in seconds by automated cyber-crime software
- Using the same password across multiple applications
- Writing down passwords, or sharing them with others
John added: “Cyber criminals are targeting all businesses all of the time, using automated software to find weaknesses and exploit them.
“Making any of these password disasters is the data security equivalent of leaving the key in your house’s front door, next to a giant sign saying, ‘come in, valuables upstairs’.”
He recommends that all local businesses use a password manager. This is software that generates long random unique passwords – and then remembers them, so humans don’t have to.
Making the password random reduces the likelihood of a successful brute force attack. This is where the password is guessed by software just by trying lots of common combinations.
Replacing a six character password with a 12 character one makes it 62 trillion times longer to crack.
Give us a call to discuss how a password manager can help make your business more secure.
