If you’ve made 2021 the year that your business revamps your cybersecurity and you’re ready to protect yourself from threats, one of the first places to look is at your passwords.
Password management is one of the biggest cybersecurity threats, still, for businesses of all sizes. Luckily, it’s also one area that’s relatively easy to remedy, as long as you put the time and resources toward doing so.
Around 81% of company data breaches are thought to be because of poor passwords.
Now that could be an even bigger problem than when that study was released because more employees are working from home.
Employees may reuse passwords across multiple platforms, and they might use the same passwords personally and for work.
The following are some of the things to know this year to protect your business as far as your password management strategies.
Do An Audit
Before you can really understand what your company is doing well and what you’re doing poorly in any area of cybersecurity, you need to do an audit. This will give you a clear picture of the steps you need to take.
You have to have a baseline to measure your improvements, as well and to create an official strategy that you can alter as needed.
Educate Your Employees
No matter how much cybersecurity remains as one of the most pressing issues for businesses, the primary area of weakness is employees. Companies are not putting enough resources into training and educating their employees. Employee errors and a lack of knowledge are driving many of the biggest breaches.
You, as the employer, have a responsibility to train employees fully on all areas of cybersecurity best practices, including password management.
You also can’t look at cybersecurity training as a one-and-done proposition. It’s something that you need to regularly revisit as changes occur.
When training and educating employees on password management in particular, think about training employees on how to create unique and complex passwords.
Along with training, you need to have a set of standards that every password must meet. For example, aim to have numbers and symbols and choose passwords that are at least 16 characters. Don’t store them in email accounts or Excel sheets, and change them at least every 90 days.
Use a Business Password Manager
If you’re going to invest financially in any area related to passwords, do so with a password manager.
You don’t need a proprietary password manager.
Instead, choose a platform that meets the industry standards and is user-friendly for everyone on your team.
You want a password manager that’s well-integrated into employees’ workflows, so they’ll be using it as much as they should.
A password manager needs to also be accessible across all devices your employees use.
A password manager should automatically generate strong passwords that meet the standards highlighted above.
If you use a password manager and a cybercriminal does get one password related to your business, they won’t be able to access everything else.
Then, all that the employee needs to remember is one master key.
Any cybersecurity platform, including one with password management features, also needs to have role-based access functionality.
Your employees need to have access to only what they absolutely need to do their job on a day-to-day basis.
As part of your audit that was mentioned earlier, you should go through and find out exactly who has access to what.
You very likely have too many administrators and administrative accounts being used.
Least privilege is a concept where you go through and start removing administers that are unnecessary and limiting administrative rights.
How Does a Password Manager Work?
If you’re completely new to the concept of a password manager, it’s worth going over the basics of how they work since they are so important.
Basically, you store all of your business online log-in information in one place. Then, the encrypted information is accessed with one master password.
Each online account then has its own unique, strong password. The password manager generates these.
Your employees don’t have to remember all of the many passwords they need, so you’re taking out two major risk factors from the equation, which are using the same passwords for multiple accounts and weak passwords.
You can also choose a password manager that’s integrated with browsers and syncs across multiple devices.
To recap, to strengthen your businesses’ password management this year, first you need to do an audit to discover where your areas of weakness are and who has access to what. Then, you need to train and educate your employees and also put into place cybersecurity technology including a password manager.
Online Threat Alerts Security Tips
Pay the safest way
Credit cards are the safest way to pay for online purchases because you can dispute the charges if you never get the goods or services or if the offer was misrepresented. Federal law limits your liability to $50 if someone makes unauthorized charges to your account, and most credit card issuers will remove them completely if you report the problem promptly.
Guard your personal information
In any transaction you conduct, make sure to check with your state or local consumer protection agency and the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to see if the seller, charity, company, or organization is credible. Be especially wary if the entity is unfamiliar to you. Always call the number found on a website’s contact information to make sure the number legitimately belongs to the entity you are dealing with.
Be careful of the information you share
Never give out your codes, passwords or personal information, unless you are sure of who you're dealing with
Know who you’re dealing with
Crooks pretending to be from companies you do business with may call or send an email, claiming they need to verify your personal information. Don’t provide your credit card or bank account number unless you are actually paying for something and know who you are sending payment to. Your social security number should not be necessary unless you are applying for credit. Be especially suspicious if someone claiming to be from a company with whom you have an account asks for information that the business already has.
Check your accounts
Regularly check your account transactions and report any suspicious or unauthorised transactions.
Don’t believe promises of easy money
If someone claims that you can earn money with little or no work, get a loan or credit card even if you have bad credit, or make money on an investment with little or no risk, it’s probably a scam. Oftentimes, offers that seem too good to be true, actually are too good to be true.
Do not open email from people you don’t know
If you are unsure whether an email you received is legitimate, try contacting the sender directly via other means. Do not click on any links in an email unless you are sure it is safe.
Think before you click
If an email or text message looks suspicious, don’t open any attachments or click on the links.
Verify urgent requests or unsolicited emails, messages or phone calls before you respond
If you receive a message or a phone call asking for immediate action and don't know the sender, it could be a phishing message.
Be careful with links and new website addresses
Malicious website addresses may appear almost identical to legitimate sites. Scammers often use a slight variation in spelling or logo to lure you. Malicious links can also come from friends whose email has unknowingly been compromised, so be careful.
Secure your personal information
Before providing any personal information, such as your date of birth, Social Security number, account numbers, and passwords, be sure the website is secure.
Stay informed on the latest cyber threats
Keep yourself up to date on current scams by visiting this website daily.
Use Strong Passwords
Strong passwords are critical to online security.
Keep your software up to date and maintain preventative software programs
Keep all of your software applications up to date on your computers and mobile devices. Install software that provides antivirus, firewall, and email filter services.
Update the operating systems on your electronic devices
Make sure your operating systems (OSs) and applications are up to date on all of your electronic devices. Older and unpatched versions of OSs and software are the target of many hacks. Read the CISA security tip on Understanding Patches and Software Updates for more information.
What if You Got Scammed?
Stop Contact With The Scammer
Hang up the phone. Do not reply to emails, messages, or letters that the scammer sends. Do not make any more payments to the scammer. Beware of additional scammers who may contact you claiming they can help you get your lost money back.
Secure Your Finances
- Report potentially compromised bank account, credit or debit card information to your financial institution(s) immediately. They may be able to cancel or reverse fraudulent transactions.
- Notify the three major credit bureaus. They can add a fraud alert to warn potential credit grantors that you may be a victim of identity theft. You may also want to consider placing a free security freeze on your credit report. Doing so prevents lenders and others from accessing your credit report entirely, which will prevent them from extending credit:
- Equifax
- Experian
- TransUnion
Check Your Computer
If your computer was accessed or otherwise affected by a scam, check to make sure that your anti-virus is up-to-date and running and that your system is free of malware and keylogging software. You may also need to seek the help of a computer repair company. Consider utilizing the Better Business Bureau’s website to find a reputable company.
Change Your Account Passwords
Update your bank, credit card, social media, and email account passwords to try to limit further unauthorized access. Make sure to choose strong passwords when changing account passwords.
Report The Scam
Reporting helps protect others. While agencies can’t always track down perpetrators of crimes against scammers, they can utilize the information gathered to record patterns of abuse which may lead to action being taken against a company or industry.
Report your issue to the following agencies based on the nature of the scam:
- Local Law Enforcement: Consumers are encouraged to report scams to their local police department or sheriff’s office, especially if you lost money or property or had your identity compromised.
- Federal Trade Commission: Contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357) or use the Online Complaint Assistant to report various types of fraud, including counterfeit checks, lottery or sweepstakes scams, and more.
- Identitytheft.gov: If someone is using your personal information, like your Social Security, credit card, or bank account number, to open new accounts, make purchases, or get a tax refund, report it at www.identitytheft.gov. This federal government site will also help you create your Identity Theft Report and a personal recovery plan based on your situation. Questions can be directed to 877-ID THEFT.
How To Recognize a Phishing Scam
Scammers use email or text messages to try to steal your passwords, account numbers, or Social Security numbers. If they get that information, they could get access to your email, bank, or other accounts. Or they could sell your information to other scammers. Scammers launch thousands of phishing attacks like these every day — and they’re often successful.
Scammers often update their tactics to keep up with the latest news or trends, but here are some common tactics used in phishing emails or text messages:
Phishing emails and text messages often tell a story to trick you into clicking on a link or opening an attachment. You might get an unexpected email or text message that looks like it’s from a company you know or trust, like a bank or a credit card or utility company. Or maybe it’s from an online payment website or app. The message could be from a scammer, who might
- say they’ve noticed some suspicious activity or log-in attempts — they haven’t
- claim there’s a problem with your account or your payment information — there isn’t
- say you need to confirm some personal or financial information — you don’t
- include an invoice you don’t recognize — it’s fake
- want you to click on a link to make a payment — but the link has malware
- say you’re eligible to register for a government refund — it’s a scam
- offer a coupon for free stuff — it’s not real
About Online Threat Alerts (OTA)
Online Threat Alerts or OTA is an anti-cybercrime community that started in 2012. OTA alerts the public to cyber crimes and other web threats.
By alerting the public, we have prevented a lot of online users from getting scammed or becoming victims of cybercrimes.
With the ever-increasing number of people going online, it important to have a community like OTA that continuously alerts or protects those same people from cyber-criminals, scammers and hackers, who are every day finding new ways of carrying out their malicious activities.
Online users can help by reporting suspicious or malicious messages or websites to OTA. And, if they want to determine if a message or website is a threat or scam, they can use OTA's search engine to search for the website or parts of the message for information.
Help maintain Online Threat Alerts (OTA).