Despite recent advances in authentication technologies, there’s no getting away from the traditional passwords. It’s still the preferred method to log into most services and let’s face it, we’re simple creatures and prefer the shorter, easier to remember approach over using longer ones that are more difficult to crack. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) revealed that a lot of people still use easily guessable passwords with ‘123456’ being top of the list used by an estimated 23.2 million people! What’s more, by using the same username and passwords across multiple sites, you’ll be at risk from credential stuffing, basically a cyber attack where collections of stolen login credentials from one service are used to attempt to break into accounts on various other services.

…and here’s some more scary statistics from NCSC:

· 81% of breaches are caused by weak or reused passwords.

· 61% of people use the same/similar passwords for all accounts.

· 37% of people forget a password at least once a week.

· Each account has a unique password.

· You have more online passwords that you can remember.

Worried? No need to be, here’s the answer?

To manage passwords, we highly recommend using a Password Manager – a software solution that creates, remembers and fills in passwords automatically.

When you log into an online account for the first time, this will store your username and password securely, so every time you go back to the same site, your credentials will be filled in automatically.

Benefits of a Password Manager

1. All your passwords are organised in one secure place – so you only need to remember the one password to get in

2. Keeps your master password private – it won’t send / store the master password

3. Syncs everywhere – available across multiple devices with passwords that are always backed up

4. Uncrackable – generates strong passwords with a two-factor authentication to add an extra layer of security

Hopefully, this blog has made you stop and think about how you manage your passwords, here’s our three takeaways:

1. They need to be long

2. They shouldn’t be used in more than one place

3. Use a password manager to get peace of mind when it comes to improving the digital security of your business. Here at Kick we recommend LastPass – a password management solution that manages every entry point to your business, minimising the risk of passwords being hacked and helping to make employees much more productive.

For more information on password management, LastPass or cyber security in generally you can speak directly with your Kick account manager. If you are new to Kick then contact us or call us on 01698 844 600 to arrange a no-obligation chat.