Passwords are supposed to ensure that only the correct person or people can access something. In a business context this is generally for a laptop or mobile phone. However in these days of sophisticated cyber criminals a good old password can offer little or no protection against a determined and skilled hacker. However too many businesses are far too laid back in their approach to this problem and putting their business at risk.

What must you consider :

1. Avoid predictable Passwords- such a family or pet names and family birthdays . Hackers can see your social media and find out details about you.
2. Avoid the most common Passwords . It is hard to believe that Password and 123456 are very common after all the warnings. Replacing letters with numbers Passw0rd fools no one.
3. Change the manufacturers default passwords that devices are issued with before they are used. Someone hacked into those home cameras that tell you if you have a burglar because of a failure to do this.
4. Use two factor authentication (2FA) for important websites such as banking and email . Monitor even this as the best hackers can get past even these.
5. Make sure all laptops, MACS and PCs use encryption products that require a password of their own.
6. When available use fingerprint recognition for a mobile devices.
7. Use strong passwords . All should be longer than eight characters and include a mix of random , letters , number and symbols.
8. Never reuse Passwords . Every account should have a unique password. Otherwise if a hacker obtains the password they can access every account you have.
9. Change your Passwords from time to time. Do not have a quarterly cycle that is easily guessed e.g. change spring234 to summer234.
10. Consider using a password manager . This will put all the passwords in one place and you have to remember one Master Password. The Master Password has to be very strong .

Make sure your staff are properly trained and appreciate the risks you are taking . If you lose your data it will affect everyone – and not in a good way.