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 you put together secure and reliable passwords: 

• Use complex strings of characters - Your passwords should consist of both upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and special characters.
• The longer, the better - If you have more characters in your password, there are more opportunities for a hacker to get it 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 passphrase is basically an upgraded password variant that is harder to guess, but easier to remember. We recommend using multiple words that don’t have anything to do with each other. 
• Use different passwords for each account - You should be using different passwords for each of your accounts, just in case one of 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 more complex and secure passwords. Additionally, you can consider some of the following to make using them easier and more efficient.

What Else Can You Do to Protect Your Online Accounts?

To capitalize on the benefits of password security for your business, we recommend that you take things just a hair further with additional policies and technology solutions. We recommend multi-factor authentication and password management solutions to get the most out of your password and authentication policies.

With multi-factor authentication, you can use additional authentication protocols alongside passwords to maximize security. Your average multi-factor 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 take what you have applied to your password security and make them that much easier to manage. Password managers store your passwords in an encrypted database where they are protected by a master password. You can then call the passwords as they are needed when you access your accounts. Password managers often have the capabilities to generate passwords for you, just in case you need some help with your complex passwords. It makes using complex passwords and passphrases that much easier.

If you are looking for help maximizing your organizational cybersecurity, give the IT professionals at SCW a call today at (509) 534-1530.