Marc Rocker, Head of Cyber Security at Towergate Insurance has been expressing his concern about weak passwords and has given his advice on how to create and use safe passwords, to protect personal information and keep cybercriminals out of your company’s data. “It’s amazing how many times we find that passwords are very obvious. Disturbingly, the latest NordPass study shows that the top five most common passwords in the world are 123456, 123456789, 12345678, Password and qwerty123!
“The best advice is to instead, try and choose a password that is at least 14 characters long and uses a combination of upper and lower-case letters, numbers and special symbols. Don’t use easy to guess words like a relative’s name, pet’s name or any birthday and avoid using sequential numbers or letters, such as 1234 or jklm. Another useful tactic is combining three completely unrelated words to create an unusual password that is both long enough and strong enough to evade a hacker. An example of this could be ‘branchpaincurtain’.”
There are additional steps that can further tighten password security and these include setting up multi-factor authentication on all eligible accounts. Enabling this feature means that when a cybercriminal attempts to log in to an account inputting the username and password, they will trigger a second form of authentication. This results in their being sent a code (or asked for an additional password or a fingerprint) to confirm that they are genuine and which they cannot provide, foiling their attempt to access the account.”
Protect your business with cyber insurance
Mr Rocker continues: “Even after taking all of these precautions, no system is completely invulnerable to Cyber threats, which are constantly evolving and becoming ever more sophisticated. Small businesses are often the most vulnerable and so the best advice is to ensure that you also have adequate cyber insurance coverage that will protect you and your business, in the event that the worst happens.”
Towergate Insurance specialises in helping businesses to navigate these complex risks and provides cyber coverage specifically designed to protect personal and business interests.
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