{"id":5609,"date":"2020-03-17T16:20:09","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T16:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cybersmart.com\/?p=5609"},"modified":"2021-10-01T10:23:06","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T10:23:06","slug":"remote-working-best-practices-what-makes-a-strong-password","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cybersmart.com\/blog\/remote-working-best-practices-what-makes-a-strong-password\/","title":{"rendered":"Remote working best practices: what makes a strong password?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Still using the password you conjured up for your first email account in 2002 featuring your favourite footballer? We hope not. Passwords play an absolutely essential role in the security of your company and weak passwords are some of the easiest way for hackers to breach your cyber defences through employee accounts.<\/p>\n<p>In this article we&#8217;ll be sharing advice on how to avoid this common, but easily avoided, security pitfall.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Minimum password length for systems<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For all password-protected systems, your business should try to follow these basic steps when configuring them:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The minimum length for a password should be at least 8 characters including all alphabets, symbols, and numbers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There should be no maximum password length.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The system should not allow the user to set a password that does not meet the minimum length requirements for it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The requirements mentioned above are simple to understand but can be difficult to implement. It is important to note that these rules need to be established across all password-protected devices and software.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To meet this requirement, you need to consult with your IT manager to ensure that all devices and software (whether third-party or proprietary) enforce the minimum password length.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Enforce a secure password policy<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A password policy is used to establish the rules and requirements for setting passwords. Creating a secure password policy for staff helps businesses protect themselves and allows them to meet the password requirements under the government&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/cybersmart.com\/cyber-essentials-certification\/\">Cyber Essentials certification scheme<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The goal of a password policy is to take away the burden of individual users to create solid passwords. However, users should still be made aware of the password policy so that they pick sensible passwords for their email, devices, and other accounts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Other than the minimum password length requirement mentioned above, your employees should:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avoid obvious passwords that can be easily discovered or guessed such as their name, phone number, birthdays. That goes for your pet&#8217;s name too.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not choose common passwords such as the \u2018abcdefgh\u2019, \u201812345678\u2019. This can also be implemented through a blacklist that prevents users from keeping common passwords.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Memorise their passwords instead of recording them whenever possible. Don&#8217;t email them to yourself or keep them in your Notes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not use the same password for different accounts. 45% of Brits have the same password for half of their online accounts. Not great.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use password management software or other secure mechanisms for storing and retrieving passwords.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\"><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Require the system to:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Protect against brute-force password guessing algorithms by locking accounts after a set number of unsuccessful attempts to enter the password.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Change default or common passwords to random non-guessable passwords.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you want to see how long it would take a computer to guess your current passwords, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/howsecureismypassword.net\/\">HowSecureIsMyPassword<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ensuring the use of<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cybersmart.com\/blog\/cyber-security-101-passwords\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">strong passwords<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a key step towards becoming digitally secure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cybersmart.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CyberSmart<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> helps businesses<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">comply with Cyber Essentials<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by simplifying the process of compliance for them including complying with password regulations. If you would like to learn more about how to implement a password policy for achieving Cyber Essentials,<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cybersmart.com\/contact\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">get in touch<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with us.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Still using the password you conjured up for your first email account in 2002 featuring your favourite footballer? We hope not. Passwords play an absolutely essential role in the security&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,88,11],"tags":[92,90,9,129,48,126],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Remote working best practices: what makes a strong password?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Passwords play an absolutely essential role in the security of your company and weak ones are some of the easiest way for hackers to breach your cyber defences\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cybersmart.com\/blog\/remote-working-best-practices-what-makes-a-strong-password\/\" \/>\n<meta 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