World Password Day 2021
What Is It?
World Password Day falls on the first Thursday in May and helps promote better password habits. With all that has happened in the world over the past year, this might be the most important Password Day there has been.
With so many of us working from home, our cybersecurity will be stretched to the limit. The basis of great cybersecurity is using strong passwords. So, a good way of improving your security is to make sure you are using strong passwords for all your accounts.
In Vistatec, we have a strong password policy to ensure our assets are secured. Such policies, at the very least, should set minimum password lengths – typically over ten characters – using a combination of upper and lower case, numbers, and extended symbols and require to be changed every month or three months.
Scary Statistics
A survey held in the UK by password manager LastPass found some shocking behaviors around re-using the same password and reaction to data breaches:
- 92% know that using the same or a variation of the same password is a risk, but:
- 50% of us do it regardless! And,
- 58% of people haven’t changed their password in 12 months – even after hearing news of a breach
What can you do?
Personally, I use a password manager. I checked how many account credentials are stored there – 186! My action to take away today is to review all these accounts and remove my details from any sites/applications that I no longer actively use. Otherwise, if one of these sites is breached, then my personal email account is going to get spammed a lot more and any of my personal data stored on these sites is for sale.
If you are not using a password manager, I suggest that you do. Not only does it mean you don’t have to remember (or track in a handy notepad file on your hard drive, cunningly named pwd.txt) all these passwords, but the tool can create long complex unmemorable passwords that are harder to hack. It’s still true that the longer the password, the harder it is to hack. There are several good tools out there, many of the anti-virus companies supply them as part of their subscriptions, and there are others such as LastPass. Do some due diligence on their security and check that they fit your needs in terms of devices and operating systems supported.
Take Action
Celebrate the day by taking action and sharing these password tips on social media, using the hashtag #WorldPasswordDay:
- Change an old password to a new long, strong one.
- Switch on two-factor authentication for your important accounts.
- Do not store passwords in your browser.
- Do not store passwords in a text file.
- Always log off when you have finished with a program or site.
- Passwords protect your wifi router.
About Vistatec
We have been helping some of the world’s most iconic brands to optimize their global commercial potential since 1997. Vistatec is one of the world’s leading global content solutions providers. HQ in Dublin, Ireland, with offices in Mountain View, California, USA.