In working with business owners I get it – you have critical things to do to run your organization and memorizing dozens of complex passwords to different systems and services takes mental energy that could be better used on doing what you do best – that’s why you’re in business to begin with. You understand the importance of security. You have learned not to use Password123 (I hope you’re not using Password123) but a new password every time you find a useful service is a bit much.
I applaud you for using a complex password for each of the one or two passwords that you keep reusing – you make sure it is longer than 10 characters and that it’s not a simple word and a couple of numbers or symbols tacked on. Maybe you are even using a long passphrase instead – fantastic. But unless you only have one place to use each password you need to take the time to do better by finding and using a password manager
Again, I get it. You are busy keeping things afloat and the odds of having your password compromised feel remote. Maybe you figure your operation is too small to attract the attention of hackers. Maybe you trust that most people are basically decent – especially your employees – and they won’t pose a security risk if the time comes that they need to move on. Maybe you’ve read this kind of thing before or maybe this is something you haven’t run across yet (because digital security isn’t your business anyway) – whatever the case let me share five reasons why you should get a password manager:
- Only remember one good password: With a password manager you only need to remember a single password no matter how many services or systems you interact with. Memorize a strong master password and you can use that to access the passwords you need anytime you need to log into anything else. Many password mangers can even auto-fill those passwords for you.
- Easy password rotation: Whether you rotate your passwords regularly or irregularly there will be times when you need to change one of those passwords. Perhaps you follow a standard such as changing your password on a schedule (which is no longer a recommended practice) or maybe you only change a password for other reasons such as when someone leaves your organization or when a password gets compromised in a data breach somewhere. Whatever the reason you can change the passwords when needed with the peace of mind that they won’t be forgotten because you save the new password in your password manager at the time you change it and then you won’t be accidentally entering your old password the next time you log in.
- Strong password generation: People aren’t good at consistently generating strong and truly random passwords. Every time you need to come up with a new password manually it will take time to formulate something random and then memorize it. Remember that the easier it is to formulate and memorize the less likely it is to actually be random. Password managers save you the trouble of memorizing the passwords but they also have tools to generate random passwords instantly. You can customize the parameters to meet system requirements for length, special characters, etc. and have an acceptable random password without having to make it up yourself.
- Easy password sharing: I know – you shouldn’t share passwords – but sometimes you may need to. If you have a system somewhere that requires an administrative password that multiple people might need to use sharing the password might be your only option. An enterprise password manager will have an option to share a specific password with other users. In the event that someone no longer needs access to that shared password you can revoke their access and rotate the password so that anyone else still needing access can use the new password.
- Monitor password health: Sometimes it’s hard to tell when a password has been compromised – there might not be any obvious signs. Maybe your account somewhere hasn’t been breached yet but someone else used one of the passwords you are using and their password was compromised. Password managers have the ability to check your passwords against lists of passwords that have been exposed in data breaches and they can alert you when a password needs to be changed.
There you have it. Five reasons to get a password manager. If I’ve convinced you to take this step to better secure your organization then take action. If you know a password manager that meets your needs start the process of making use of it in your organization. If you don’t know what password manager might fit your needs or if you don’t know how to go about deploying the tool of your choice feel free to contact us and we’ll help you find a tool that’s right for you and your organization. Depending on your needs there might even be a free offering for you to choose.
