The Risks Your Clients Face with Changing Passwords
BY IT GLUE | October 12, 2017
When your clients need to update a password, do they have a secure protocol in place? What if the password is for a resource multiple people need access to? How do they let others know of the change?
More often than not, they are probably sharing these password changes freely – which is incredibly dangerous. They might even send the new passwords over unsecured email, not realizing that they are putting their company at risk for serious hacking and cyber attacks. We’ve previously discussed the significant dangers your clients face when sharing passwords, now we’ll discuss the lack of protocol in place when your clients change passwords.
When passwords are changed, your clients put their company at risk
Employees don’t know how to create strong passwords and don’t know what to do if a password is changed:
- 65% of small and midsized businesses do not have a strict password policy in place.
- 52% of employees believe sharing passwords is not risky.
- 32% of people surveyed shared a new password because their manager or boss asked for it.
- Passwords are being changed too frequently – at every 90 days.
- People generally use the same password pattern when changing their passwords. For example, changing “@wesome123!” to “@wesome456!” – making it easier for hackers to crack.
- In a study conducted by the University of North Carolina, in 17% of the accounts where the password was known, they were able to crack the new password in less than 5 guesses.
With all of these worrying statistics, it is clear your clients are not taking the precautions they need to protect their sensitive data.
What your clients need
To eliminate the possibility these risks, employees need standardized rules. They need to change passwords completely (without following a pattern) and avoid having to share these changes. The strongest and simplest solution that you can provide your clients is a secure password management tool. IT Glue can play a role in that – providing a solution for passwords used by teams, visible through the IT Glue application, the Chrome Extension or our new IT Glue Mobile App.
IT Glue is the leading documentation platform for MSPs, designed to eliminate waste, improve productivity and hit your SLAs better. We are SOC 2 compliant, meaning that you can count on the security of your information in IT Glue.
