Technology Advisor Blog

Do your passwords pose a security risk for your business?  At first this sounds like a funny question, because passwords are supposed to keep things secure, right?  Well, not if they're recycled, weak, or not protected with multi-factor authentication!  Your protection may not be as strong as you think, and getting better password practices is an important step in strengthening your cybersecurity.  World Password Day was created by cybersecurity professionals in in 2013 and designated as the first Thursday of May.  Now is a great time to help strengthen cybersecurity awareness in your team, and we've put together some resources for you to help to help foster better password practices.

Some interesting password statistics from the past year:

• More than 50% of individuals reported that did not change their email passwords even once!
• 5% of employees said they use a password manager.
• Nearly a third of employees wrote down their passwords to remember them.
• Credentials (username + password) ar the most common way for a bad actor to gain access to an organization, accounting for over 60% of breaches.  

As you can see, there's a LOT of room for improvement here, and we strongly recommend ongoing security awareness training for all local businesses.  Big businesses make the headlines when there's a cyber event, but half of threats impact small businesses, so no one can just hide!  Cybercrime is big business, and there are a lot of smart and affordable things you can do to stay safe online.

Forrester reported that nearly 5% of employees who received a malicious email clicked on the link provided, exposing their organizations to attackers.  This is consistent with what we see here at Ekaru when we conduct simulated phishing tests.  No one thinks they would be tricked to click on a link, but the reality is that its common.  

Threat actors also love to "hijack" the news, so in April you'll see a lot of tax email scams, around the holidays there will be a lot of holiday related scams, and we'll probably see a lot of "back to work" scams as people debate the benefits of being in an office (or not).  We like to say "Think before you click", but in these busy times, it's just too easy to make a mistake.

In honor of World Password Day, download a copy of the infographic and share with your team.  Even taking a few moments at a team meeting to talk about passwords and security can make a big difference. 

If you're interested in stepping up your game as it relates to security, reach out to schedule a 20 minute call with us!  978-692-4200.