Passwords

This week we help you with successful Passwords.

WHY ARE PASSWORDS IMPORTANT?! Passwords are an essential aspect of computer security. A poorly chosen password may result in the compromise of your business’ corporate work. If your business does not have a Password Policy in place, get in touch with us and we can help you quickly and easily protect your business, your team, and your data.

STONG PASSWORDS – For a strong password consider including the following qualities:
– 10 Characters or more
– Mix of upper and lower case
– Include one or more numbers
– Include a special character
– Use words not in the dictionary
– More than one word
– Use different passwords across your many accounts

WEAK PASSWORDS –To avoid a weak password do NOT include the following:
– Consecutive letters or numbers
– Character substitution such as P@$$word
– Your kids’ or pets’ names
– A word associated with your business e.g. ‘computer’
– Your current address
– Family birthdays, important dates

PASSWORD IDEAS – The following ideas can be incorporated into a password to make it stronger and help you remember. These ideas can be used in conjunction with numbers, special characters and upper/lower case to produce a strong password:
– Rhyming Phrases – Short phrases which are easy to remember such as ‘Three Blind Mice, see how they run’ can be used in the form ‘TbmShtrShtr367’
– Songs – Similarly, use the first letter of each word in a line of your favourite song.
– Favourite Things – a sentence structured on ‘My Favourite …+…’  is easy to remember. Such as: My Favourite Place Equals The Beach in California ‘Mfp=Tbic649’

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR BUSINESS! – At Southern Computer we utilise and strongly recommend a password policy for your business.  Many business’ highly sensitive data is put at risk without unified use of strong passwords across your business team. The purpose of a password policy is to establish a standard for the creation of strong passwords, the protection of these passwords and the frequency of change. The policy includes how passwords are to be constructed, what to include, what not to include, how often they are to be changed and much more.

If your business does not have a password policy in place and you would like to be assured that your data and business is safe from risk, get in touch with us.At Southern Computer Co. we can draft a policy which will suit your business and enable you to have a clean, consistent and safe use of passwords across your business.