Password Management

Password hygiene matters

Passwords and good password etiquette are the very first line of defence for your devices and accounts. While 72% of UK businesses have a password policy in place, there are still 28% of businesses that are still not convinced of the consequences of poor password management.

Having poor passwords or even managing passwords incorrectly can leave your organisation and personal information susceptible to cybercrime and/or identify theft.

A Survey conducted to unearth password negligence in the UK and US found that over half of their 4000+ respondents had been the victim of a cyberattack. 24% lost their social media logins and 15% of respondents are aware of their compromised passwords and its availability on the Dark Web!

Attackers use a variety of techniques to discover passwords, including social engineering, shoulder surfing, manual guessing, interception, brute force attacks or even buying them on the dark web.

Passwords are used at almost every point of our digital lives. Whether its social media, ecommerce sites, personal and/or business accounts and applications, it’s important to ensure that your data is secure and reduce cybercrime.

How to achieve good password etiquette

Poor passwords present a severe vulnerability to the business and your personal information. Not only can login credentials be stolen to access your data and systems, but they can also be used to steal your identity and use it to trick others close to you.

Here are the steps you can take to achieve good password etiquette:

• Use long, strong, auto-generated passwords where necessary
• Regularly change your password
• Monitor logins to detect unusual activity
• Leverage MFA and Password Managers to strengthen your accounts
• Implement technical controls to limit common password choices
• Never share your password

Leverage technical solutions for secure passwords and account protection

Multi-factor Authentication can be a great way to further secure accounts and applications using additional layers of security. This can be by using an authenticator app like Microsoft Authenticator or using a pin-code sent via email or SMS.

Password managers, also known as password vaults, offer a central location to store and manage passwords and are recommended by the National Cyber Security Centre, but are they fit to serve your business? Many of the well-known vaults lend themselves best to the individual ‘private user’ and can represent quite a high expense for a business or organisation.

In contrast, we provide our own Password Management service that is tailored to you and supported by us.

How our Password Management service can help you

• Adherence – enforcing your IT security policy and creating a healthy security culture can be challenging. Having appropriately secure passwords should be at the top of any security policy, but it can be difficult to enforce. RedDoor IT’s solution enables you to ensure that all passwords meet your specified standard.
• Cost – our solution, which is tailored to the needs of a business, can be more cost-effective than many of its well-known competitors. It’s also charged for on a monthly basis, meaning it can be included within your monthly IT support costs, rather than being a one-off annual payment.
• Business and personal – protecting staff, both in and outside of work, will make your IT infrastructure more secure. Our solution also provides staff with a personal password manager for private use, so you can encourage a healthy attitude towards security in all environments.
• A secure list – if you’re not using a vault service, chances are you have a ‘master list’ of all passwords, most likely in the form of a spreadsheet. Whilst this may be password protected, this is generally an unsecure and inefficient way to store login credentials. With our password manager, your ‘master list’ is easy to edit and search, and exists in a highly secure environment.