Passwords are a pain.
No one enjoys trying to remember login credentials for upwards of 100 unique sites and services. More to the point, no one can remember 100+ unique sets of credentials, which leads to all sorts of other awful security problems (don’t worry, we’ll discuss them in a minute).
Thankfully, new technologies are on the way or already here that either do away with the password entirely or add additional layers of security. But these new elements — passkeys, single sign-on, password less, and so on — have their own issues, and they aren’t yet available for every system, service, and account that you have a password for currently.
Someday we’ll live in a post-password utopia. But we aren’t there yet.
For now, password managers are the best near-universal solution for solving the security and access problems passwords create. This article is all about password managers—why you need one, what’s at stake for businesses that don’t rein in poor password use, and which password managers are worth your time.
Understand the Risks of Poor Password Use
Like we said at the start, passwords can be a pain. They’re hard for humans to remember and easy for machines to guess. Even worse, no one can legitimately remember hundreds of username and password combinations. So, what do most users do? They use unsafe shortcuts to overcome this hurdle.
Some people write down all their important passwords in a notebook or leave them on a sticky note under their keyboards. The problem here is that absolutely anyone that might have physical access to your space could easily steal every password. All it takes is a single smartphone camera snap, and every account listed could be compromised.
Others create one or two passwords that are easy for them to remember, then reuse those passwords across dozens of different sites and systems. Most people — around 90 percent by one survey — know that this is dangerous, yet almost 60 percent admit to doing it anyway. (And let’s be real: most of the remaining 40 percent are lying!)
The trouble here is that if criminals manage to steal your username and password anywhere (through a data breach, a phishing attack, or anything else), then chances are good they now know your password everywhere — including sensitive accounts like your bank and your corporate logins. And when our email addresses are reused as usernames, the problem is even worse!
Don’t be lazy when it comes to your security. Reach out for a free list of password managers that work best for your business.
Photo by Graham Holtshausen on Unsplash
