SplashData recently released their fifth annual list of the worst passwords. I know that you will be surprised to find out that the top two are “123456” and “password.” Working for an IT company with very competent engineers, I’ve been indoctrinated into understanding the importance of complex passwords. Another important piece to the password best practices puzzle is using a different password for each account or login. Over 2 million passwords were leaked during 2015. If you used one password for all of your accounts, there is a high probability that the bad guys can access your other accounts as well as the one you were alerted about.
So what makes up a complex password, you ask? This at least comes with a straightforward answer: 13 or more characters, one capital and one special character. I received a great bit of advice from Richard Stokes who suggested taking the first letter from a favorite line from a movie and combining it with a special character and number. For instance, “No Sicilian can refuse a request on his daughter’s wedding day,” from The Godfather would translate to nScr@rohdwd1!
Once you’ve created these unique passwords, you need a place to store them so you don’t forget what they are. This shouldn’t be on a sticky note on the side of your monitor or in an excel spreadsheet on your laptop, but somewhere secure like a password locker. Tony wrote a Tuesday Tip on this you might want to review: Managing Strong Passwords.
Once you choose the right password locker for you, simply input your passwords and you are one step closer to thwarting the bad guys!
Alisa Michael
With over 17 years experience in the legal arena as well as client management, Alisa brings her experience to Network 1’s team, clients and partners. She strives to be proactive in managing clients’ needs and expectations with an outcome of client satisfaction and retention.
amichael@network1consulting.com or 404.997.7637
Network 1 Consulting is a 17-year-old, IT Support company in Atlanta, GA. We become – or augment – the IT department for law firms and medical practices. Our IT experts can fix computers, but what our clients value most are the industry-specific best practices we bring to their firms. This is especially important today since technology, along with regulations and cyber threats, are changing so rapidly. We take a proactive approach to helping our clients use technology to gain and keep a competitive advantage.
