Managing Passwords: 5 Easy Steps to Maintain Cyber Security as An Entrepreneur
Managing passwords is crucial as an entrepreneur.
As an entrepreneur, you have to wear many hats; you’re your own manager, cleaner, and accountant. But when it comes down to it, making sure that your personal data is safe determines how far your business will go.
Below are seven sure-fire ways to ensure that your internet privacy is safe and secure:
Be Aware of Hacker Tech.
Hackers have come a long way from their rudimentary guessing games to figure out your password (e.g. the world’s most common passwords). Nowadays, hackers can gain access to your most vital and personal info with just the click of a button.
Of the two best password cracking programs are John the Ripper and Hashcat, “The strongest password guessing programs, John the Ripper and hashCat, use several techniques. One is simple brute force, in which they randomly try lots of combinations of characters until they get the right one. But other approaches involve extrapolating from previously leaked passwords and probability methods to guess each character in a password based on what came before.”
The good news is that you can protect your business from these hackers using two simple programs:
- Password Manager
- Two-factor authentication (2fa)
Install a Password Manager
Experts advise us to change our passwords every 3 months. The problem with this is that it’s easy to forget to change our passwords and when we do, we usually switch one weak password for another.
This is where a password manager comes in.
A password manager is a secure, online vault that holds all your login credentials.
The best part about this tech is that it does all the work for you. It creates and stores the strongest, most complicated passwords, so you won’t have to go through the trouble of coming up with a password that’s both memorable and idiosyncratic.
We recommend finding a password manager that works for you, based on:
- Security Features
- Multi-Device Platform
- Userability
- Free Options
Although, if you still want to know our favorite password manager, LastPass definitely takes our #1 spot for all of the features above.
Set Up Two-Factor Authentication
The most important accounts to set up two-factor authentication on are your bank and email accounts. No one wants somebody having access to all of their funds, and if a hacker gets into your email, they can reset your passwords on the accounts that are linked to your email.
Create Your Own Password
If you’re a traditionalist and still feel that creating your own password is best, then do that. Here at BlogWallet, we want you to succeed at doing what’s most comfortable for you.
Here’s a few tips on how to build a strong password that’ll stoop hackers:
- Create passwords that are 12 to 16 characters long
- Consider using a saying, like “the dogs run after the squirrels.” This saying is 27 characters long and easy to remember in a pinch.
- Avoid reusing passwords. Hackers will take advantage of this as soon as they have your old passwords.
Educate Your Employees
At the very least, employees require basic cyber security training to protect trade secrets. Regularly providing your employees with training will allow them to remain aware of current, virtual threats and be prepared on how to guard against these threats.
Managing passwords may seem tedious, but completing these steps can save you from future headaches of having to rebuild your business after someone steals your data.