How often do you change your passwords?

Changing your online passwords can often seem like a hassle. Especially as the average individual in the UK now has over 7 social media accounts alone, without counting online banking and shopping etc. Remembering all those passwords can be hard work, which is one of the main reasons a majority of us have that one, old faithful password we use for everything personal and work-related.

A recent report from Cyber Security Europe states that around 23% of the UK population routinely use either their name or date of birth as their online passwords. More worryingly one in ten brits use the same one or two passwords for all their online accounts.

The risk of these individuals being hacked is one issue but there is also a major worry for businesses with 60% of those surveyed using the same passwords at home as in the workplace.

So what are the implications of using weak passwords for multiple accounts?

With the new GDPR regulations coming into practice May 2018, the risks for businesses couldn’t be higher. The fines for not protecting the data your organisation holds can be up to €20 million or 4% of your global annual turnover, whichever is greater.

Preventions?

It may seem like an obvious one but does your organisation have a policy in place to ensure all employees to routinely change their passwords? A strong password should consist of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Avoid writing passwords down, using phrases and replacing letters with numbers can be an easy way to remember more complex secure passwords.

Your organisation is only as secure as the weakest link if there is one employee that has weak passwords, this could potentially be a gateway for hackers to gain access to your organisation and all its data.

Here at CBS we have ensured that all our systems are compliant with the new GDPR legislation and that we have consent for all the client data we hold.

Be proactive, safeguard your organisation.