Yoda Wisdom for Password Management
We are sharing Password Wisdom on Star Wars Day… May the fourth be with you!
Today is World Password Day, a day to help people to think more mindfully about their password management strategies. This year the annual awareness day falls on May the fourth, coincidentally the day ubiquitous with celebrating Star Wars across the globe.
We are taking the opportunity to share some Yoda Wisdom for Password Management.
Many are seduced by the Darkside
“Is the dark side stronger?” (Luke) “No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.”(Yoda)
Remembering multiple passwords for every device, subscription, App and piece of software is undoubtedly difficult but make no mistake this is the dark path. Whilst this is the path of least resistance, it is dangerous and leaves your business open to cyber-attacks.
According to a recent survey conducted by World Password Day:
“The dark side are they. Once you start down the dark path forever will it dominate your destiny.”
Return of the Jedi
- 84% of respondents claim they reuse passwords for multiple sites.
- “My memory” was the most frequent response to “How do manage passwords?”.
- The second most popular response was “pen and paper”, while password manager was third.
- Almost a quarter of respondents reset their passwords every day or multiple times a week.
- 24% of respondents had been affected by a data breach in the past 18 months.
Padawan teachings from Sleepless Your IT Company
“Hear you nothing that I say? You must unlearn what you have learned”
The Empire Strikes Back
We have shared its top tips for proper password management and strongly encourage business owners to introduce these measures at work and at home.
- Multi-Factor Authentication
Always opt for Multi-Factor Authentication. It uses two separate ways to identify the person logging in. For example, an MFA may be a password plus a push notification to your phone, even better – a physical touch-key.
- Complex Passwords
When using a password, include at least 10 characters, both upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.
- Use a Passphrase
For example, Maytheforcebewithyou but change it up like this: m4Yth3f0rcebw1thu. Inscrutable even under the pressure of Jedi mind tricks!
- Use a password manager
Using the same password on multiple devices or platforms is a big no-no! Never share your password with anyone. Using a simple password manager will store them safely for you. We recommend the free password manager: Bitwarden. Contact us to help you set up an account today.
The future is passwordless
“Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.”
The Empire Strikes Back
Sleepless Managing Director, Daragh Naughton, predicts that passwords will become obsolete. The future of password management is passwordless. We are already seeing this for many organisations and Sleepless have a policy that includes ‘passwordless’ as an option. It uses trusted devices for MFA and is convenient for businesses with many endpoints and employees with countless passwords to manage.
Sleepless Managed IT Service
“Your path you must decide.” – Star Wars Rebels, “Path of the Jedi”
We can help organisations establish good password hygiene, install MFA for all devices and Apps and help employees move to ‘passwordless’ to avoid the path of the dark side.
Sleepless Managing Director, Daragh Naughton shares his wisdom,
“Although we’re taking a lighter look at password management today to celebrate World Password Day and May the Forth, password management is a serious topic and one of the most important security tasks that your business can get under control. Get your Password Management in order and it will remove a headache from your operations. We hope you’ll implement some of these tips in your business today. May the fourth be with you!”If you would like help managing your organisation’s passwords or IT Systems, contact our team today.
