According to a 2017 survey carried out by consumer password management company LastPass, the average business employee keeps track of and has access to 191 passwords. 61% of those employees use one password or iterations of that one password everywhere, putting convenience over known security vulnerabilities. It’s not surprising that 81% of data breaches are the result of a compromised login. So how does a company keep credentials, users, logins and business data secure? By using a Password Manager.
When using one password across several services the impact of one password being stolen or compromised by a criminal increases exponentially.
With commonly used passwords throughout the organisation, it’s impractical to change these every time an individual leaves the business to prevent fraud or theft.
With GDPR fines exceeding €20million, any personal data controlled or processed by the company that is breached could prove disastrous.
Better password management.
It’s clearly unfeasible to expect users to create and remember 191 unique passwords in their business lives, coupled with the passwords used in their personal lives this becomes a much bigger number. The management of these is complicated by the expectation that some service logins need to be shared amongst a group of users within the organisation. So how is this kept track of? Who has access to which passwords? Where is a record kept? What happens when a password needs to be changed?
Password Managers
Password Managers help to answer these questions, allowing users to store passwords in a secure method in a safe space and share access to communal resources. There are several solutions available through a quick online search but recognising the best solution for your business is more complicated. This is combined with identifying and building an appropriate management structure with the password manager, ensuring access is available to the applicable team members have access to the required passwords.
Building the structure for password management is the first big hurdle to be faced, how do you break down access levels and individual access? How does the team share passwords when required? Who is responsible for ensuring information accuracy and maintaining audit logs for changes? How do you lock down access for departing employees?
Businesses can lose a lot of productivity time answering such questions in order to implement an appropriate solution, but Texaport can help.
Texaport Password Management
Texaport’s web-based Password Management platform is centrally managed by Texaport with access managed, monitored, updated and enforced by our technicians. Security is of the highest priority, and engineers do not have visibility of passwords within our clients’ system, while being able to assist in the reset and access privileges of individuals and teams.
Each user has access to their own vault for storage and management of individual passwords, encouraging secure password practices in their personal lives as well as granular access to the company vault, which is managed by custom security groups.
Password Managers – A Summary
Password security and management is the biggest vulnerability present in all businesses, but it needn’t be such a weak point in defences. The right password manager can prevent unauthorised access to sensitive resources while improving the complexity and variety of passwords within the business. Ensure your company is doing all it can to prevent compromise through poor credential security and management and you can avoid becoming a painful statistic.
