With the increase in the number of employees working from home, a password manager is more crucial than ever to the protection of your data and your business. It offers yet another layer of security that can help keep cybercriminals out.
The Average Person Uses More than 80 Passwords
The average individual has more than 80 passwords in use. From insurance and banking apps to pizza apps and Uber, virtually everything requires a password. There’s a very high rate of probability that your employees are reusing their passwords in multiple places – to access work email, to log into your network, and to use apps for personal or company business. All it takes is one breach – doing business with something as small-time as a local pizza company – to put your organization’s data in the hands of a cybercriminal.
Is Your Data at the Mercy of a Sticky Note?
Because we’ve become a society in which passwords are commonplace, it’s likely that your employees are not only repeatedly using the same passwords but are also creating ones that are easy enough to type into their TVs using their remote controls (logging onto streaming services, such as Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon). To remember so many passwords, employees may write them down – on sticky notes or on pieces of paper left under their computers or on their desks. They may have saved an entire list of all their usernames and passwords in an Excel spreadsheet.
What Is a Password Manager?
A password manager is a security tool that not only creates complex passwords that are difficult to decipher but also autofills them on the websites and apps your employees use. Password managers keep passwords vaulted, removing the risk that a weak password, used across multiple accounts, will be accessed by a cybercriminal. A single “master password” is all that the users must have to log into the password manager, and the tool takes care of everything else.
Are Password Managers Safe?
The password manager you choose should meet or beat industry standards for encryption. thinkCSC recommends the use of password manager services as a part of our managed services because we believe that a password manager adds an essential layer of protection that can help you mitigate the risk posed by employee password use.
The benefits are clear. Using a password manager will:
- Reduce the risk of data breaches
- Require you to remember only one password
- Manage shared business accounts and apps without the risk of sharing passwords
- Strengthen your cybersecurity
Password managers are just one more way in which thinkCSC can help you minimize the impact of global threats. In addition to a password manager, we offer additional services to strengthen your infrastructure, including vulnerability scanning, internal and external penetration testing, web app penetration testing, security assessments, policy development, and security awareness training. Contact us to learn more.
