Let’s talk about passwords. No, wait. Don’t leave! Passwords are important. Boring, but important, and I think it’s about time we talked about them a little.
You see, on my daily commute to the sofa office, I decided to catch up on some news and I happened across an IT article in The Sydney Morning Herald that caught my eye named “How to De-Clutter Your Digital Life”. “Oh”, I thought, “this could be interesting!” What followed in the article was pretty obvious. “Send spam to the spam folder”, groundbreaking! “Keep files in folders!” No way! All seemed like fine -albeit obvious- tips. Until I came to point 8. Take a look:
Wait, what? “Use one password for everything”?
This is terrible advice! I couldn’t believe it. Let me explain;
Imagine your passwords are like a set of keys to locked doors and behind those doors lay all your most precious possessions, your family heirlooms and your entire life savings.
Now imagine that to save yourself the bother of carrying multiple keys around, you have just one key to unlock every single door. Convenient, right? But what if that key was stolen? You wouldn’t just lose the contents from behind one door, or two doors, but potentially lose everything.
Is that worth the convenience of only carrying one key around?
I don’t think so. Do you?
Now, don’t get me wrong, nobody likes the idea of having to remember dozens of passwords. Especially in a time when passwords require 10 letters, 2 numbers and a bunch of flowers to simply check your emails.
So what’s the solution? Sign out of everything and go back to pen and paper? Memorize your 20 different passwords for everything you need on the internet?
Luckily, there are a few solutions out there that are not so extreme.
Two-Step Authentication. With two-step authentication, you are asked to enter a code that is sent to you through another service such as a text message. Only after entering your password andthe code, are you logged in.
Apps like Google Authenticator make using two-step authentication and easy and secure option for your business.
Password Managers such as LastPass offer personal and professional solutions for storing all of your passwords securely, and have the ability to enter your passwords for you so you can simply set it and forget it. Password managers like this may be slightly less secure than two-step authentication, but when used in conjunction with them, you get the best of both worlds, a secure password, two-step authentication and ease of use with autofill enabled.
If you’re interested in using two-step authentication or a password manager, or both, for your business, why not get in touch with us for a chat!