As a business owner, you are constantly acquiring new information related to your customers, financial details, vendors, and contractors that you work with. Owning data is part of owning a business. Times have changed and you now have to worry about a hacker exposing your business. A data breach can cause costly lawsuits and clients to lose trust. A robust Cyber Liability Insurance Policy can help you weather the storm of a data breach.
Passwords Are Key
As a business owner, one of your most important responsibilities is protecting your data. This means choosing a strong password. Passwords are one of the biggest challenges in cyber security for all businesses. Many hackers break into company’s databases by breaking a bad employee password. Make sure you avoid data breaches in your business by implementing some safe password tips.
Here are some of the worst passwords and why:
Password:
For several years, Password has made it to the top of the terrible passwords list. It seems clever, but several people use it so it’s not the best choice for securing your data. This is among one of the first passwords hackers try.
123456789:
Yes, this is an easy password to remember, but this is also easy for a hacker to crack. Same as 987654321, 123456, 654321, so on and so forth. Make sure you let your employees know that consecutive numbers are not a good choice when it comes to creating a secure password.
QWERTY:
Tell your employees the same about consecutive letters. If a password is easy to remember, it’s easy to hack. We think no one will ever guess qwerty, but they will.
Date of Birth:
The Internet doesn’t make it difficult to find our personal details such as your date of birth, spouse, children, etc. This is one of the first things hackers search for when they are trying to breach your system.
BusinessName1:
This is a super common password among business owners. This again is one of the first passwords hackers try to breach your system
Business Address:
If your business is located on 121 Broadway Street don’t use 121BroadwayStreet as your password. This is something hackers can easily find on the internet and it is a common password among businesses.
Memorable Events:
We all like to share our exciting events on our Social Media. That is why using your favorite vacation spot isn’t always the best password choice. Say you go to Pensacola Beach, Florida every year for vacation, eliminate Pensacola1 or Iloveflorida as password options.
What makes a good password?
At this point, you might feel like we have eliminated all of your password options. Something memorable isn’t always the best option. Use something unordinary.
Here are some tips to keep in mind:
- At least 8 characters - 12 is better
- At least one uppercase letter
- At least one lowercase letter
- At least one number
- At least one symbol
- Significantly different from other passwords