Are you confident in the integrity of the passwords you and your employees use to access critical data and communications on daily basis?

It might be worth taking a moment or two to consider the question before you give your response: Believe it or not, more than 90 percent of user-generated passwords—like the ones your employees pick—are susceptible to hacking, according to Deloitte & Touche.

Moreover, recent research by Verizon indicates that 76 percent of breaches that occurred within the last few years were the result of passwords that were able to be compromised. Since that’s the case, it might be time to consider whether your businesses needs a refresher course on how create secure passwords.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few tips to consider as you search to adopt a stronger password management strategy:

• The longer the password, the better. Here’s some basic logic: The more characters there are in your password, the harder it will be for hackers to crack it. The latest technology allows hackers to figure out five-character passwords in five seconds! Thanks to the power of exponents, a seven-letter password could be cracked in 13 hours.

• Mix numbers, capital and lowercase letters and special characters. Remember a new password can be difficult, particularly when you’ve got to incorporate numbers, cases and special characters. But by alternating between letters, numbers and characters, you’re making your password that much more secure.

• Use passwords that are hard to guess. If your name is Frank, for example, by all means avoid passwords like “frank,” “frank123” and, of course, “password.” While this advice might seem pretty straightforward and obvious, believe it or not, there are a lot of people who don’t heed it.

• Change your passwords often. While you might not like having to keep remembering new ones, best practices show that you should change your passwords several times a year. Here’s a quick trick: Just keep adding a number to the end of your password every so often. For example, “Apple_107” becomes “Apple_108” and then “Apple_109,” and so on.

Have any more questions? We’ve got answers.

If you’re looking for a firm to help oversee or advise you as to how to improve your IT infrastructure, you’ve come to the right place. Click here to learn more about how Apex Technology Services of Norwalk, CT can help safeguard your business’ sensitive data.