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Do you use your pet’s name, your football team or 123456?

The O Team • Apr 03, 2023

With the average internet user having about 100 sets of logins, it is no wonder that, according to the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, millions of us use “pet names, football team names, ‘password’ and ‘123456’ to keep life simple".


Hackers do not need to be tech geniuses – there are so many online tools for cracking and hacking, that almost anyone can have a go and if you are one of the pet-loving or football-favouring password users, you can be compromised in just a matter of seconds.


A hacker needs roughly two seconds to crack an 11-character password made up of numbers.


Do you have the same password for lots of sites?


Do you store your passwords on a spreadsheet or iPhone notes?


Do you forget your usernames and passwords?


If the answer to the any of the above is ‘yes’, then there is a better answer. One that will provide convenience and enhanced online security. A password management tool.


Life seems to be full of passwords for this, for that and for everything! So how do you remember all of your passwords and manage the security of your accounts and data?


With life happening online, we all need to ensure we are safe and secure by protecting our data. A password manager securely stores all your passwords so you don’t have to keep trying to remember them.


Basically, you will have to remember one password, your master password, which gains you access to your password management tool. Once logged in you can use the password management tool to generate and save all your passwords, ensuring highly secure and unique passwords for all your logins.


Going one (very useful) step further, you will also benefit from your password management tool prepopulating websites and apps with login details so you don’t even have to do that!


So how does this work for your business?


In exactly the same way! Employees are given their own password 'vaults', which the business invites them to open and set up. And off they go...


As a business, you benefit from knowing access to business logins and data is more secure, with powerful encryption, multi-factor authentication and safe login-sharing options.


But how do you know it is safe to store all your passwords in one place?


There is only one password that can be used to gain access, your master password, and this is protected by setting up two-factor authentication. This is strongly recommended by the NCSC: ‘even if a cyber criminal knows the master password, they still won’t be able to access your password manager account.’


But really, you also need to ask – “how secure are my passwords and data now?”


Peace of mind, convenience, security. These are all paramount in our online lives, so make sure you have the level of protection and support needed to make things easier and more secure for you.


We are always happy to chat through options and solutions, just give us a call >

The O Team


Sources:

The National Cyber Security Centre

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/top-tips-for-staying-secure-online/password-managers#:~:text=A%20password%20manager%20(or%20a,which%20you%20should%20never%20do).

The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/mar/19/not-using-password-manager-why-you-should-online-security

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