Tips to Improve Password Security

Passwords are unavoidable these days, whether they’re required to access an online account, or access the devices utilized to open these accounts. While both types of passwords can make for ideal security conditions, this is only the case if the passwords are strong; if your passwords can be accurately guessed by someone else, can you really label it as a security measure? New research from SplashData reveal that passwords are not being considered as much as they should be.

SplashData gathered and examined passwords that were leaked in 2017, resulting in the most common passwords being “123456” and “password.” These also happened to be the most exposed passwords for the past four years. The University of Phoenix’s annual cybersecurity survey has also provided some absorbing insights:

• Only 42 percent of Americans use different passwords across different websites.
• Only 35 percent regularly update their passwords.
• Only 24 percent update their passwords before they have to travel.

Moreover, 43 percent of adults have been a victom of a data breach over the past three years, and 29 percent of workplaces have password protection as a standard part of their cybersecurity policies. While these statistics aren’t the ideal situation, it’s imperative to understand why this is the case. One of the biggest problems regarding password security is that people don’t want to have to memorize complex passwords. This is augmented by the fact that multiple passwords are needed to ensure all accounts are secure. There are tips to remembering them, though. 

Passcodes
An arbitrary string of letters, numbers, and symbols just isn’t user-friendly or easy to remember. When you’re restricted by length and content requirements, implementing a password that is easy to remember is basically impossible. Since you don’t want to use just a single word either, you can improve the security of your password by lengthening it into a passphrase; like a secret phrase that you, and only you, should know.

For example: the phrase “starwars” was one of the most utilized passwords in the SplashData survey. If information on a user’s social media profile reveals that they are a Star Wars fan, a cybercriminal could utilize this information to guess the password and cause numerous problems. By lengthening your password into a full sentence, like “I really love star wars,” you can significantly upgrade security for your account.

Substitution
If security is an additional problem, you can upgrade the strength of your passwords by replacing numbers and symbols for specific letters. For example: the previous example of “I really love Star Wars” can be switched to “1 really l!ve St@r W@rs.” This makes it harder for a hacker to guess the password.

Implement a Password Manager
The security industry is very mindful of how difficult passwords are to remember. This is why password managers have become a major implementation of any security-minded company. Instead of having to remember multiple complex passwords, a password manager supplies a secure vault for storage of any complex passwords, all of which are controlled by a master password.

Does your company need help with cybersecurity? Macro Systems has the solution. To learn more, reach out to us at 703-359-9211.