Passwords Aren’t Enough to Secure Most Accounts

Securing your digital platforms has to be a major point of emphasis for every business. For years, having a password was enough to keep unauthorized entities out of secured accounts. Those days are effectively over. With threats multiplying and getting more and more dangerous, companies have to do more to secure their IT. This month, we thought we’d take a look at some of the best practices in creating passwords and alternatives that can help you better protect your business’ technology. 

The password is still a major part of securing accounts, but with people using more password-secured accounts it probably doesn’t surprise you that most people will suffer from password fatigue and unwittingly create credentials that are either obvious or easily hacked. Hackers today have software that can try around 100 billion different password combinations every second. That shouldn’t give you a lot of confidence if you use the same password for several accounts. 

Here are some other statistics regarding passwords as presented in a report by LastPass:

• Small businesses with 1-to-25 employees have an average of 85 passwords per employee.
• Larger companies with over 1,000 employees have an average of 25 passwords per employee.
• Employees reuse a password an average of 13 times.
• Businesses with less than 1,000 employees have the highest rates of reusing passwords at 10-to-14 times per user.
• Compare this to the lower rates of reusing passwords for businesses with more than 1,000 employees, which sits at four times per user.

If these numbers tell you anything it is that passwords are just not enough to protect the accounts and data that is stored on them. While password managers use encryption to help secure an individual’s passwords, if the passwords themselves are created with bad practices, the accounts are in danger. That means your network, your data, and your business can be in danger. That’s why we suggest building passwords using today’s most up-to-date NIST guidelines for password protection and utilizing biometric authentication or multi-factor authentication systems to boost protection of your online-facing accounts. 

This isn’t always as simple as it sounds. According to LastPass, larger businesses and enterprises are more likely to have implemented multi-factor authentication than small businesses. Statistics say that companies with over 10,000 employees have an 87 percent adoption rate of multi-factor authentication compared to businesses with under 25 employees having only an adoption rate of 27 percent. Small businesses need to understand the risk they are taking on by not pressing their employees into making better password decisions. 

At XFER, we understand that it can be difficult, and sometimes costly, to put these security protocols into place. With over two-fifths of all cyberattacks aimed directly at small businesses, there needs to be a more coordinated effort made to thwart password-based cyberattacks. 

Our certified technicians can help. Give us a call today at 734-927-6666 / 800-GET-XFER to talk to one of our consultants about helping your organization set up the cybersecurity tools you need to keep your data and infrastructure secure.