Online security is of paramount importance these days, so choosing your password is something you should do with care and attention. The best, most secure, passwords follow these four guidelines:
- Eight characters minim
- Upper case and lower case letters combined
- One or more numbers
- One or more special characters such as: ! @ # $
If your passwords or discovered, of course, this opens the opportunity for unauthorized individuals to access the system. The results of this can be disastrous. For instance, others could manipulate your personal data such as your bank account information, online memberships, and personal profiles. Such persons could even impersonate you and send emails in your name or memos from your account.
Although technology and the efficiency of email and online data-sharing has made just about everything more efficient in this world, it has also opened up the potential for a lot of tampering, which means you can be misrepresented online. With today’s business community so dependent on web-based interfaces and email, such an occurrence could ruin a project, destroy a reputation, or even bring down a business.
Do you know what the most common passwords are? Believe it or not, they are “password” and “123456.” Most businesses simply don’t take their passwords seriously. They don’t realize that one weak password—perhaps on something that seemed unimportant at the time—can open up private fields that enable hackers to more easily figure out your stronger passwords.
Some argue that strong passwords can be difficult to remember, and when many employees are accessing one system, their complexity can be intimidating. This is certainly true, and you definitely don’t want to make it easier by writing it down or emailing the password to all relevant employees. The best way to counteract this hesitation over establishing strong passwords is to have regular security meetings, where passwords are discussed and security is emphasized. Verbally tell your employees the passwords and have them repeat them back to you. Sound like something out of a spy movie? Well, it may, but if you take security seriously—as you should if you deal with online monetary transactions, for instance—such a level of attention is perfectly reasonable.
- In addition to the above-listed password “do’s,” there are also several password “don’ts” that will help keep your online world safe and secure:
- Do not use a word or phrase that is in the dictionary
- Do not use a word with a number at the beginning or end
- Do not base your password on personal information, such as a birthday or pet’s name
- Do not make up a password that is a keyboard pattern, and don’t repeat characters, such as aa or bb
With these simple guidelines, you should be able to ensure the security of your online and intranet data, thus building the confidence among management, staff, and customers as far as your company’s overall reliability and technological infallibility.
