It’s something millions of people around the world do each day. We shuffle the kids out to the car and do a sanity check before we stick in our key and lock our front door. Some may go a step further and arm the alarm.

But do we ever stop to think that this ‘act’ of securing our dwelling also ‘secures’ in our minds that things are safe? Let’s take this a step further.

You’ve put a lockbox to control who has access to your offices after hours, installed a security camera system to capture the important areas of your business and even gone as far as locking your file cabinets in your bookkeeper’s office every night. On top of all that you’ve gone and purchased insurance to safeguard your business and network from cyber-attacks.

That’s all the bases covered, right? Well, did you know that approximately 74% of security hacks are caused by your employees, vendors and staff? That poor password security policies, lack of data security, too infrequent backups and improperly configured network equipment, are all the prime targets for hacker attacks.

We have found that 3 out of 5 businesses don’t even implement a password account policy plan. And that’s one of the easiest ways to minimize attacks!

Security matters, no excuses!

As a Managed Service Provider, I hear every possible reason for this behavior… 

• We’re a small company, why would anyone attack us? 
• It’s too hard to maintain all those passwords and takes time up in my day to have to remember them.
• I can’t take the time to remember and surely my data isn’t that important to the company?
• It too time consuming to create and then remember different unique passwords. 

Of course, I do agree that all these online security efforts add time to your already busy daily routine. But, why are those steps any different from you locking your front door every day? Locking your door and arming your alarm are an essential part of keeping your home and property safe.Taking an extra step to safeguarding your accounts by changing password often and never sharing them, can thwart an attacker as much as 20% of the time. That’s because, the time it takes them to run your password against a dictionary attack, can mean there’s one less user whose account can be compromised. 

So, let me try to anticipate your next thought: “I’ll just keep it in a text file, or a sticky note on my desktop.” I suspect you’re also someone who puts a key under the flowerpot on your deck to your back door? If you are that person, no matter how convenient it might be, I don’t really think you need me to tell you that’s not the best of ideas.

Improving your online business security can be easier than you think

But there is hope. I have a few recommendations that can help you manage all those passwords and to help you more easily use more complex passwords, too. 

Personal Password Manager tool - There are a number of great, free software tools out there that provide password data management. They integrate with all modern browsers and can help you properly and securely store your passwords in an online “vault”. Then, when you head to your favorite work site it will pop open with suggested login credentials. Then, when you’re prompted to change passwords in the future, it stores those changes securely. 

Business/Enterprise Tools - Like make companies, you have multiple employees using “company login accounts” and no way of centralizing those accounts so only specific individuals have access to the right ones. Fear not! RightPath has a great centralized solution called AppID, that allows you to centralize your shared accounts and share those login details in a secure form called App plugins. These plugins can then be assigned to individuals, granting them access to these accounts, only when they need it. So, if they should leave your company, you can easily revoke access, without letting critical passwords out of the office. AppID can also manage users’ individual passwords and keep them both secure and accessible from their mobile devices, tablets and company owned hardware. 

As you can see, I consider online security a very important issue, particularly in business not matter how big or small your company is. That’s why I strongly encourage you to consider adopting a new password policy as a first step. For more tips and ideas on how to safely but more easily adopt important security measures, subscribe to our blog. We regularly share straightforward steps to ensure your business is as secure as your home.

If you have any questions about this post or anything business technology, or online security related, please give us a call or chat with us!