According to the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) Cyber Threat Report 2022-2023, the average Australian household has over a dozen internet-connected devices, which equals a lot of passwords. Can you then imagine how many passwords exist in the business sector?
In this day and age, passwords are key to a plethora of online accounts, be it for personal or business purposes. How many times have you forgotten an important password, shared a password mistakenly, or perhaps you have it written down in plain sight for all and sundry to see? This nonchalant way of thinking can increase your cyber risk, and a potential breach of your accounts or data. As one of their safeguards, the ASD highly recommend using long unique passphrases. This is where password managers can assist with such activities.
What is a password manager?
You may have heard of it before, but what exactly is a password manager you ask? A password manager is a tool that stores all your logins and passwords in a safe and secure way. Managing multiple passwords manually can be cumbersome, particularly if you recycle passwords and use your address, pet names or your birth year, which is not recommended. However, this is a far too common occurrence. But there is great news on that front; assistance is at hand with some password managers actually generating passwords for you.
How does it work?
Password Managers generate and store complex unique passwords for each of your accounts, which significantly improves security by reducing the risk of using weak or easily guessable passwords. With a password manager you can have lengthy, random passwords without the burden of remembering them all.
A benefit of these tools lies in their end-to-end encryption ‘vaults’. These vaults can be conveniently managed, allowing users to be added and provisioned, keeping all business passwords and other sensitive information securely stored.
Why does your business need a password manager?
Remembering dozens of unique and strong passwords for various sites is virtually impossible. A password manager simplifies this process by securely storing your passwords and allowing you to access them across different platforms. And you only need to remember one master password to retrieve all your passwords!
Password managers also build a strong culture around cybersecurity through global policies, such as establishing minimum password requirements, enforcing login with Single Sign on (SSO) or two-factor authentication (2FA)
By choosing a reputable password manager, you’ll also maintain good security practices essential for maximizing the benefits to you. Your business can gain numerous advantages by using a password manager. When choosing a password manager, also consider ease of use for all users, from beginners to advanced.
At Concord IT, we recommend Bitwarden as an excellent choice for this purpose as it offers cross-platform compatibility and robust features. Bitwarden, whether hosted on the Bitwarden Cloud or deployed as a self-hosted instance, is user-intuitive and straightforward to set up.
Some more features and benefits of Bitwarden:
- Ensure productivity by enabling your team to share passwords among colleagues easily and securely.
- Cross-platform accessibility and unlimited devices from any location or browser.
- Flexible integrations, uniting existing systems with Bitwarden.
- Access insightful reports to reveal weak, reused passwords and other security metrics.
- 7 day trial.
We can work with you to determine if Bitwarden is suitable for you and your business, so why not book in a free consultation with our team today. For more information about this service or any other IT solution call us on (03) 7036 2470 or email hello@concordit.com.au.
