Password1234..... not it! (Week 7)

 

We all know that security is crucial in today’s digital world; especially when we rely on it for just about everything. Phone numbers? You don’t need to look through a phonebook anymore. Banking? Most of it can be done on apps or online. Mostly it’s all about the convenience of having everything at the tips of our fingers. The problem with this… is security.

 But now, we have even more to look out for…. Clouds. A lot of people or organizations store personal information or private data in a cloud environment. That is exactly why having a strong password is important. However, when it comes to organizations or working with sensitive data, one thing I found interesting this week is how password policies should exist. Not only to protect company data but personal data.

Enforcing a policy that includes multiple different facets can be the difference in secure and not secure. A good policy should include rules regarding complexity (numbers, upper and lowercase letters, symbols etc.), minimum length, a mandatory password reset after a certain amount of time, along with not being able to use the same password as the last 5.

A good rule of thumb is to also have different password for each account. This can help avoid multiple accounts from being compromised if someone gets a hold of your password. Another thing that stood out to me was a lockout policy, which can be beneficial in trying to keep people out of your account. For instance, after so many wrong attempts the user account locks.

Have you changed your passwords recently? This could be the reminder you need!


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