How To Create a Great Password in 2021


Posted By: Ryan Richardson - 2/16/2021 12:00:00 AM

It’s no secret that 2020 was a wild year for cybersecurity. Many companies were forced to move to remote working situations abruptly, and navigating the threats this presented was no easy task. One of the most basic and core components of a solid cybersecurity strategy is having a good password policy. This applies to every industry and every size of organization, but especially small-to-medium sized businesses who have a giant target on their back. SMBs are an attractive victim for cybercriminals because they typically have less resources dedicated to security. 

Today we will remind you about 3 key components to include in any strong password, but first I want to touch on an authentication trend we are seeing as we move further into 2021.

There is talk of Microsoft aiming to eliminate passwords all together in 2021, and according to the following statistics sited in Microsoft’s blog, they have good reasoning for this bold ambition:

  • On average, 1 in 250 corporate accounts are compromised each month.
  • Roughly 4 out of 5 cyberattacks are aimed directly at passwords.
  • Gartner Group research shows that 20-50% of help desk calls are for password resets.

So, it’s easy to conclude that passwords are in fact a major threat, not to mention a hassle. Microsoft has made some big strides in reaching their goal, with hundreds of millions of users already using their passwordless technology that authenticates with biometric information from fingerprint or facial ID scanning, much like we’ve been doing with our smart phones for quite some time. 

The thought of moving to a passwordless reality is exciting to many of us, but while most of us are still using these things every day, let’s make sure they’re as effective as possible.

Here are 3 key components to forming a strong password:

  1. Length: We recommend that your password be at least 10 characters long. This should be comprised of upper and lower-case letters, as well as special characters. An easy way to generate long passwords that are memorable, is using phrases (“humble, hungry, and smart”) or song lyrics (“Here Comes the Sun!”).

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  1. No Personal Information: This means avoiding things like birthdays, middle names, your kid’s name, etc.)
  1. Avoid repetitive characters (“rrrrr”) or sequential numbers (“12345”).

 

Protecting Your Password

Now that you have a good idea of how to create a password, be sure to protect it by using the following best practices:

  • Turn on Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for login.
  • Don't hand out your password—not even to trusted family members or computer support staff.

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  • Use a different password for each online account. That way, if one password is compromised, your other accounts are not at risk. It is especially important that you refrain from using your work password for personal services.
  • Use only secure programs when connecting to your work environment—programs that protect your password and your data.
  • If you must write down your password to help you remember it, it is better to write down a clue to jog your memory rather than the actual password. Keep it in a safe, secure place, where others cannot see it.

And possibly the most important tip…

  • Use a Password Manager. Create a ridiculously strong password for your password manager, then allow your password manager to create and store your passwords for all other accounts. Devices you use daily will store the log in credentials. Logging in on a device you have never used before will require you to look the password up in the manager.

As we all collectively wait for the day when passwords are no longer, let’s all do our part in keeping ourselves and our organizations safe. You can find more security tips like How To Spot Phishing in 2021 and How to Stay Safe on Public WiFi here on our blog.

  

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Run Business Solutions is an IT Managed Services and Website Services provider based in Amarillo, TX. Since 2007, we’ve supported small to mid-sized businesses both regionally and throughout the country. We pride ourselves in helping businesses leverage technology, not just tolerate it. Runbiz is focused on enthusiastically providing excellent technical strategy, services, and solutions that drive our customers' businesses forward. We are passionate about our mission to empower people to do what they do well. To learn more about our approach to IT, visit our Managed IT or Co-Managed IT pages. If you are looking to revamp your website to look and perform better, visit our Website Services page for more information. CULTURE AND CORE Teamwork is the bedrock of the runbiz™ culture. We believe that every team player is what makes Runbiz successful. Our culture and core values are what set us apart. We must be a group of exceptional team players if we are to be an exceptional company. We believe in empowering our team, not only with the tools necessary to get the job done, but also with the confidence and freedom to do the right thing for our customers and teammates. We each understand the essence of our roles, we are motivated by empowering people to do what they do well and have clarity on how to play a part in the vision. We strive to live out the following core values daily: Kindness – We are caring, respectful, and patient. Integrity – We are honest, dependable and we do the right thing. Excellence – We are learning, improving, and exceeding expectations. Servant Heart – We are humble, helpful, and positive. Teamwork – We are team players and playing to win. You website can be a powerful tool for your business. However, if your potential customers cannot find it or cannot find the information they are looking for on it, they will likely return to Google and find another site that provides what they are looking for. We offer you the tools to take control of your website's content. Ensure your placement in Google's ranking and increase your leads and conversions by keeping your content up to date and relevant with runCMS. runCMS does not rely on third party plugins that are prone to breakage. Instead, it is actively developed, hosted, and supported by the friendly and experienced staff at Run Business Solutions. That means that you don't need to worry about dealing with hard-to-reach, unreliable web hosting companies. runCMS is powerful and easy to use. We would love to show you how it works. Powerful Tools RunIT CMS gives users powerful and easy to use tools to make managing website content easy. These tools are managed independently and the pages update automatically. This reduces (if not eliminates) the need to use third-party tools to accomplish goals. However, RunIT CMS allows for complete integration with custom CSS and JavaScript. Galleries A Gallery is a collection of images. RunIT CMS gives users the ability to create multiple Galleries. Users can upload and re-size image and add them to a Gallery. Images can be re-ordered, deactivated and given a hyperlink. ALT tags are fully accessible. Galleries can be added to pages as thumbnails, slideshows, or thumbnail slideshows. The slideshow is powered by the Nivo Slider by Dev7studios. Libraries A Library is a collection of Resources. A Resource is a file with a Title and Description. A Library could be seen as a collection of files made available on a website with a title and description. Library Resources can have an expiration date added which will cause them to no longer appear on the website when the expiration date passes. Libraries can be added to pages as simple lists of Titles that are download links or as tables with the Title, Description, File Name, and a Download button. Library downloads are tracked and are reported in the Analytics Dashboard. 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If RSVP Required is selected, the event details will allow users to RSVP. RunIT CMS Custom Content Editors are present throughout the system. They are WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors that allow for content to be added and formatted in a Microsoft Word like manner. Our editor is one of the best on the market. RunIT CMS Custom Content Editor Toolbox The Custom Content Editors include a wide array of features for formatting text, pasting from Word, and pasting as HTML. Users can apply a CSS class from the site.css file to images and text. There is a full multi-level undo/redo mechanism with action trails like Microsoft Word. The editor includes a spell checker, find and replace tool, and a table builder. The editor also includes a powerful hyperlink manager, image manager, and document manager. The image manager allows users to edit images. The RunIT CMS Custom Content Editor produces clean, semantic HTML markup that users can view or edit with the click of a button. This allows for advanced users to embed videos, add custom scripts or styles, and generally take total control of how the HTML is going to look. Content Blocks There is no reason to repeat the same action (such as copying and pasting) to update multiple pages. No one enjoys manually updating each page of a website in order to update a hyperlink or an image. It is our goal to eliminate duplicate work when it comes to editing web content. That's what Content Blocks are all about. A content block is a piece of formatted content that can be added to pages and updated in one place. Content Blocks are edited with the Custom Content Editors, giving users complete control over the formatting (and advanced users control over the actual HTML). An example of a use case for a Content Block is a navigation sub-menu that exists in a subset of pages. Another example is a YouTube video that needs to be displayed on many pages and is subject to change. 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