Tip of the Week: How to Build a Strong Password

Cybersecurity has never been more important. There are millions of scams sent out every day that are ultimately targeting you and your employees’ password-secured accounts. Today, we are going to give you some tips on how to create passwords that work best to protect your data and information systems.

How to Build a Secure Password

Here are four considerations that can help youput together secure and reliable passwords:

●    Use complex strings of characters - Yourpasswords should consist of both upper and lower-case letters, numbers, andspecial characters.

●    The longer, the better - If you have morecharacters in your password, there are more opportunities for a hacker to getit wrong. Your passwords should be easy to remember, but hard to guess.

●    Opt for passphrases rather than passwords -For the most secure and effective passwords, use a passphrase. The passphraseis basically an upgraded password variant that is harder to guess, but easierto remember. We recommend using multiple words that don’t have anything to dowith each other.

●    Use different passwords for each account - Youshould be using different passwords for each of your accounts, just in case oneof them gets stolen. After all, if you use the same password for every account,you’ll have to change every single one of them anyway.

With these practices, you can make morecomplex and secure passwords. Additionally, you can consider some of thefollowing to make using them easier and more efficient.

What Else Can You Do to ProtectYour Online Accounts?

To capitalize on the benefits of passwordsecurity for your business, we recommend that you take things just a hairfurther with additional policies and technology solutions. We recommendmulti-factor authentication and password management solutions to get the mostout of your password and authentication policies.

With multifactor authentication, you can use additional authentication protocols alongside passwords to maximize security. Your average multifactor authentication tool will utilize two of the three methods: something you are (biometrics), something you have (smartphone, USB key), or something you know (a password, PIN, or passphrase).

In comparison, password management tools takewhat you have applied to your password security and make them that much easierto manage. Password managers store your passwords in an encrypted databasewhere they are protected by a master password. You can then call the passwordsas they are needed when you access your accounts. Password managers often havethe capabilities to generate passwords for you, just in case you need some helpwith your complex passwords. It makes using complex passwords and passphrasesthat much easier.

If you are looking for help maximizing your organizational cybersecurity, give the IT professionals at ALLTECH a call today at 954-628-3770.

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