We live in incredible times. Our mobile and digital world is super productive but if we’re not careful we can easily put ourselves and our businesses at risk. As recent news has shown us, security is a very real issue. Cybercrime is at an all-time high. The explosion of IoT and the increased use of mobile and wearable devices has opened up pandora’s box both in terms of vulnerability and productivity.
As hackers become more sophisticated and more organized in their attempts to breach private and public organizations, our response needs to be one of thoughtful and intelligent vigilance. Most employees know to keep their passwords secure and complex enough to avoid easy access, but a surprising number of people still use the same password across multiple accounts, or even sharing passwords with friends, family, or coworkers. The impact of the loss of security from such actions can be long lasting. Here are some examples of how misused passwords have led to high-level security concerns.
The Dropbox Breach
Earlier this year, the popular cloud storage company Dropbox shared that over 60 million user credentials were stolen back in 2012 due to the breach of one employee’s password. The hackers who used an employee’s password to access user information through the Dropbox site re-used that password from the LinkedIn security breach (which also took place back in 2012). The LinkedIn password was used to access Dropbox’s corporate network and steal the user credentials. This clearly shows how, while no single company is at fault, security concerns relating to password re-use can easily extend from the personal into the corporate environment. And because hackers know they can use at least some of the passwords they’ve stolen from one security incident to steal more information from other websites, the problem is an ongoing cycle.
What Can You Do?
There are a number of ways to avoid problems like this in your own business. The first and most obvious is to enforce strong corporate security policies. Make sure your employees are changing their passwords often. They should also be using different passwords for each of their accounts. They should always log off when leaving a device, even just for a moment because that’s all it takes for someone to steal or change a password. Use comprehensive security software that protects against keystroke loggers and other malware. Have employees use their password only on secure devices, and not access the corporate network from unsecure Wi-Fi connections, or computers at an internet café or library.
Make sure employees know not to share their password with friends, family, or coworkers. You never know who might become a disgruntled employee in the future. Avoid keeping the same password for longer than a year. Change it even more frequently if you can. Enforce lengthy and complex passwords that are at least 8 characters long, use both uppercase and lowercase letters, along with numbers and symbols. Avoid incorporating words that are found in the dictionary into your passwords. Remember that strong passwords are easy to remember but hard to guess. Companies who use two-factor authentication for accessing internal systems have an extra layer of security built in.
For more great security tips, reach out to the records management team at Happy Faces today.
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