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Only 18% of IT Pros Confident in Current Password Risk Management

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Many are having trouble maintaining the security of their employees’ log-in information, resulting in serious risks to their networks and private information. According to a recent LastPass and VansonBourne survey of 750 IT and security professionals in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia and Singapore, only 18% feel their company’s current access security is “fully secure and does not require improvement.” Risk management professionals have a significant role to play in determining how their organizations handle these risks and protect their data.

Some of the biggest ways that employees’ poor password management creates potential security threats to organizations’ data, according to the security professionals surveyed, are password reuse (according to 67%), weak passwords (65%), and not changing default passwords (36%), according to the security professionals surveyed. Nearly all respondents (95%) said that the risks that come along with using passwords create threats to the organization.

Given the importance of strong login information, companies often attempt to implement password rules to reduce security risks, such as requiring employees to choose complex passwords and change them frequently. However, these issues can lead to frustrations for both IT staff and employees. According to the LastPass/VansonBourne survey, the top frustrations for IT are employees reusing passwords for multiple applications, forgetting their passwords, and the time it takes to manage the company’s passwords. Employees are frustrated by having to regularly change their passwords, remember multiple passwords, and type long and complicated passwords.

The rapid increase in the number of employees working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic has also exacerbated the risks, given a corresponding surge in cyberattacks on remote workers since March. Many employees are now working on home networks that may not have the protections that office networks offer, their passwords may not follow the stringent guidelines their companies would normally require, and they may store their passwords in less secure ways. In fact, Entrust Datacard released a survey showing that 42% of employees working from home kept passwords by physically writing them down, while 34% saved them in their phones and 27% kept them on their computers. The survey also found that almost 20% of employees reused passwords across multiple systems, which could make it easier for malicious actors to compromise those systems.

Maintaining Secure Logins

There are ways for risk professionals to help protect their companies’ systems and data. Experts recommend mandatory cybersecurity training for all employees, including instructions on how to choose adequate passwords, how often to change them and how to avoid cyber threats like phishing and malware.

There are also technological ways that risk managers can help secure their organizations’ passwords. As a first step, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) recommends that organizations ensure that employees’ passwords do not match those exposed in previous data breaches.

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There are publicly available services online that allow users to check whether email addresses and passwords have been compromised in breaches.

Additionally, the NIST recommends that employers restrict passwords to those that are not dictionary words, are not made up of repeated or sequential characters (such as 11111 or 12345 or qwerty), and do not contain specifics like the company’s name or the user’s name. NIST also suggests using multi-factor authentication (MFA), which would require employees to provide their login and password as well as a second piece of information, biometric data, or a physical device like a security key to verify their identity and log in.

With so many passwords to remember, a password manager—a program that stores and creates multiple complex passwords—may also be a good choice for organizations to protect their systems.

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Like all security precautions, password managers are not perfect. While still recommending their use, the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns that “using a password manager creates a single point of failure,” “password managers are an obvious target for adversaries” and “research suggests that many password managers have vulnerabilities.
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While a password manager or single sign-on technology can have benefits like faster authentication and letting employees remember fewer passwords, they also have downsides. The IT professionals surveyed by LastPass cited “the initial financial investment required to migrate to such solution,” “the regulations around the storage of the data required,” and “the initial time required to migrate to new types of methods” as the biggest challenges about using this technology. Additionally, 74% surveyed said that they thought employees at their companies would likely prefer to continue using passwords over passwordless methods because it was more familiar.

8 Steps to Stronger Passwords Enterprise-Wide

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Passwords remain one of the most critical security controls widely used to protect and secure company infrastructure and data.

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While the need for strong passwords has long been discussed, they continue to be the difference between a secure infrastructure and a potential cyber catastrophe.

Last year was extremely busy in cybercrime, with more than 3 billion credentials and passwords stolen and disclosed on the internet. That works out to a rate of 8.2 million credentials and passwords each day or 95 passwords every second.

Passwords have always been a good security control, but password strength and how they are processed make a major difference in how secure they really are. For example, it is critical to choose an easy password to remember, keep it long, and use some complexity and uniqueness. In addition, how the password is processed and stored in an encrypted format plays a major role in password security.

Here are eight easy steps to get in control and ensure passwords are strong and secure:

  1. Go with encryption: Passwords cannot be left in plain text ever and especially not in an Excel document. Always store passwords with encryption.
  2. Escape complexity: Focus on teaching your end users to use longer and more easily remembered passwords, like password phrases.
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    Don’t let them get bogged down with having to remember special character requirements.

  3. Teach employees: Continued training is critical and is the most important step in implementing your policy.
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    Make sure your users understand their role, prepare quarterly reviews, and make it fun with incentives.

  4. Size matters: The longer the password, the harder for a hacker to break. Make human passwords at least eight characters long and systems passwords 12-50 characters.
  5. Trust no one: Two-factor authentication is a must! No matter the size of your organization, there are two-factor options for you, like RADIUS tokens, DUO, or Google Authenticator.
  6. Omit duplicates: Use a unique password for each of your accounts. The same password should never be used more than once!
  7. No cheating: Remembering a long password can be difficult, but don’t allow password hints. These just make it easier for hackers to get in.
  8. Get a vault: Start using a trusted password manager to enforce strong password best practices. This way, users can always generate long and complex passwords, never have to remember all their passwords and, if you use a vault for your IT team, you can find one that automatically changes your admin passwords. When it comes to IT, automation is key to preventing a breach.

For more information on what’s expected in relation to security and passwords, check out Thycotic’s recent report on the current and future state of password security.

The 25 Worst Passwords of 2015

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In another reminder that users are always the biggest security weakness, “123456” and “password” have once again been named the most commonly used bad passwords.

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In SplashData’s fifth annual “Worst Passwords List,” the company has compiled the most common weak, easily guessable passwords that leave users vulnerable to hacking and identity theft.

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Pulling from more than 2 million leaked passwords revealed during the year, the list highlights just how vulnerable users are.

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Some new and longer passwords made the top 25, reflecting some effort by websites, system administrators and perhaps users themselves to try to force better security practices by requiring more characters. Unfortunately, these longer passwords are so simple that the extra characters mean little, particularly given how few passwords utilize both letters and numbers.

Some new bad passwords may seem a bit more complex, for example, “1234567890,” “1qaz2wsx” (first two columns of main keys on a standard keyboard), and “qwertyuiop” (top row of keys on a standard keyboard), but are easily guessable—and clearly not quite as innovative as these users may have thought. It seems the excitement over Star Wars also had an impact: with common passwords “starwars,” “solo” and “princess,” the force of bad information security awakens.

Check out the infographic below for the top 25 worst passwords and some of SplashData’s top tips to build ones that stay off the list.

SplashData worst passwords of 2015

47% of Consumers Have Not Changed Passwords in 5 Years

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online security passwords

More than 20% of consumers use passwords that are more than 10 years old, and 47% use passwords that have not been changed in five years, according to a recent report by account security company TeleSign. What’s more, respondents had an average of 24 online accounts, but only six unique passwords to protect them. A total of 73% of accounts use duplicate passwords.

Consumers recognize their own vulnerability.

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Four out of five consumers worry about online security, with 45% saying they are extremely or very concerned about their accounts being hacked – something 40% of respondents had experienced in the past year.

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While some companies may worry that adding too many security measures may frustrate or discourage users, this concern appears unfounded. Two thirds of respondents said they want online companies to provide more security, such as two-factor authentication (2FA). The real issue may be education. Even where this extra layer of protection is available, TeleSign found, a majority has not enabled it, with most among these users reporting that they do not understand what it is or how to use it. But, the survey found, 72% of consumers want to learn more about how to better secure their data.

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“The number-one tip most experts give for increasing account security and stopping the fallout from data breaches is to turn on two-factor authentication,” said Steve Jillings, CEO of TeleSign. “Yet our research shows that the majority of consumers (61%) do not know what two-factor authentication is, even though it’s available on almost every account, free to the consumer and just waiting to be turned on.

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There is some good news, however. Some users in the United States are particularly learning – and acting upon – valuable lessons from highly publicized data breaches, with more people in the U.K. turning on 2FA because the site requires it, while more people in the U.S. did so to get an extra layer of protection. According to TeleSign, compared to respondents in the U.K., almost six times as many U.S. consumers turned on 2FA because their personal information was exposed in a data breach (17% vs. 3% of U.K. consumers). About three times the share of U.S. consumers enabled 2FA because they read or heard about a data breach (24% vs. 7%) or had an account hacked (23% vs. 9%).