It’s Not Necessarily A Matter of When, But Why?

Passwords have become a complicated, and time-consuming, fact of life. According to Security Magazine, the average business user has 191 passwords. If you find yourself always signing in to things, you probably agree with that statistic.

Not only do we have to manage all of those passwords, but we have to change them every so often to keep them secure. Many businesses have a mandatory change required every 60, 90, or 180 days where you can’t log in to your system until you change it.

Have you ever changed your password and then had to be on the phone to your IT department 30 minutes later because you locked yourself out typing the wrong one? Frequent password changes have led to lessened productivity, aggravation, and employees unable to resist the temptation of writing their new password on a sticky note or using the same password over and over for multiple site – compromising the security of your business.

However, without the mandatory change dates in place, some employees will keep the same password for years. It’s conundrum. It’s essential for businesses to determine password policies that work for their business and employees.

There are times when a password should absolutely be updated:

  • If you receive a notification from a company or service that your information has been compromised.
  • If you think there has been an unauthorized login to your account – for example if you left stored login information on a device that is used by someone else.
  • You have logged in to your account on a shared computer at a library or other public place. This is particularly important if you logged in to your bank or medical records.
  • If you share log in info with a co-worker who is no longer with the company.

It has been more than a year since you have updated the password.

  • While we don’t necessarily need to constantly be updating our passwords, we don’t want to leave them forever either.

A password manager will help you and your employees stay on top of all their passwords. Most password managers also have the ability to generate strong passwords, which will increase your password security and prevent using the same passwords for multiple sites.

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