Online security is an often-overlooked element of doing business. With most communication and data channeled through email, VOIP, and the cloud, keeping these areas of a business safe has to be of paramount importance.
While there are measures in place to protect users from intrusion, the weakest link is often the users themselves - and their passwords. In 2018, Verizon reported that 81% of corporate data breaches were due to weak passwords, and 70% of employees reused the same credentials repeatedly.
We all know that passwords should be changed regularly and be unique to each platform. However, it’s impossible in a work environment to check if your employees are using the same combination of letters, numbers, and characters elsewhere. This puts your business firmly at risk - unless you implement the use of a password manager.
A password manager is a strong and secure method for avoiding this particular headache. It generates unique passwords, saves them, and allows employers to track employee’s systems access.
If this is the solution that your business has been looking for, consider the following benefits of utilizing this type of software:
No More Pieces Of Paper
We’ve all been guilty of doing it at one point in our lives – writing our usernames and passwords down for different sites on paper. We then pop the paper in the back of a desk drawer for safekeeping. The problem is, anyone can find your notes and use your passwords. Or, your notes could get thrown away, and when you need to login to a site or service, you cannot find your credentials.
A password manager will do the job of the piece of paper. However, it will do so in a far more secure manner, and you’ll always know how to access it.
Easily Keep Track Of All Your Accounts
It’s easy to sign up for several different online accounts and services, often using different email accounts. In an office environment, you may have various credentials for different corporate systems or software. With a password manager, you can store all of this information in one place and sort through it with ease.
For a business, seeing what data or systems an employee has access to can be a major help. You can revoke access if a person leaves the company or block specific services if they are no longer required. You can also track passwords to ensure they are changed frequently.
Early Breach Warnings
The majority of password managers will track where your accounts are accessed from. If they spot an unknown VPN being used to sign into one of your accounts, they can prevent intrusion and potentially halt a hacker in their tracks.
Plus, they’ll warn you of the attempted break-in and suggest you change your password. This warning can often come long before the website knows that there has been a breach attempt.
Simplifies Signing Up To Sites
As well as storing your passwords and usernames, a password manager can store personal information too. This includes name, surname, email addresses, mobile phone number, physical address, title, etc. When it comes time to complete a registration form for a new account, the password manager will auto-fill the form in for you.
Many managers can suggest randomized passwords that meet the criteria for even the strictest websites – plenty of capital letters, numbers, and special symbols, all thrown in at random. The variation in the auto-generated credentials is what makes them harder to crack.
With over 23 million account holders globally still using 123456, it’s easy to see why the alternative is safer. These randomized passwords would be impossible for you to remember but are simple to store because they were created by the program that created them for you.
A Secure Storage Facility
Password managers tend to include a notes section. This is a great place to store important information that you know you’ll need to access at some stage and don’t want to risk losing. This can be personal details like credit card numbers or your social security number. Some employers use this space for storing warranty details for computers, printers, servers, and other equipment purchased.
Additionally, many password managers keep track of when you signed up for an account. If the account has a dormancy policy, the manager can alert you if your access is about to expire and ensure that any data you need access to is not lost.
If there’s a tech tool that every company needs, it’s a password manager. You’ll find free and paid-for options available online, and this simple software solution could be a lifesaver for your business. Adding an extra layer of security is always a smart move, as is being able to keep tabs on employee access. In this day and age, no organization needs to rely on a notepad to keep track of credentials.