One of the main ways to keep an account\u2019s credentials secure is by changing them consistently. However, we ran across an article recently that plays \u201cdevil\u2019s advocate\u201d on the password security issue, and they made some fair points about how changing passwords too frequently can lead to decreased security as a whole.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At first, this idea may not make a lot of sense. The reason that we change passwords so often is to prevent them from being used in attacks on sensitive accounts. If hackers steal passwords that don\u2019t work, they can\u2019t access the accounts. IT administrators often require user passwords to be changed on a regular basis, which may prompt users to choose passwords that are easy to remember or less complex than they should be.<\/p>\n
In reality, there are several news outlets and security websites that suggest changing passwords regularly will lead to less-secure passwords as a whole. ZDNet, The Washington Post<\/em>, and WIRED<\/em> magazine, all suggest that frequently changing passwords, despite its intended purpose, can lead to watered-down security. Consider this scenario: you\u2019re using a password, but are suddenly forced to change it. Would you be more likely to create a whole new password, or use a slight variation of your current password?<\/p>\n The Washington Post<\/em> writes, \u201cforcing people to keep changing their passwords can result in workers coming up with, well, bad passwords.\u201d This statement is backed by research from a study performed by Carnegie Mellon University, which found that those who feel that their organization\u2019s password policy was annoying, created passwords that were 46 percent less secure. Additionally, users who need to update their passwords constantly often leave patterns that connect old passwords to new passwords, like replacing a letter with a number or special character.<\/p>\n ZDNet<\/em> explains that changing passwords for the purpose of securing accounts in case of stolen credentials doesn\u2019t make sense, simply because \u201cstolen passwords are often exploited immediately.\u201d The security website also cites that \u201cregularly changed passwords are more likely to be written down (another vulnerability) or forgotten,\u201d which only seems to add to the frustration of changing passwords on a regular basis.<\/p>\n The fact remains that passwords may not be the most reliable way of keeping accounts safe, but there are ways that you can make using passwords, and account security, easier to handle. One way is to use an enterprise-level password manager. You can store all of your organization\u2019s credentials in one secure location, where they will be called from and propagate in the required fields when needed. This helps you utilize complex passwords without needing to remember all of them.<\/span><\/p>\n Another way that you can improve account security is through two-factor authentication. This adds a second layer of security to your accounts by requiring a secondary credential, which can be sent to a smartphone via SMS message, voicemail, an alternative email account, and more. There are also biometric or GPS-tracking two-factor authentication methods that are viable (and effective).<\/p>\n If you\u2019re ready to improve your business\u2019s security practices, reach out to COMPANYNAME at PHONENUMBER.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the main ways to keep an account\u2019s credentials secure is by changing them consistently. However, we ran across an article recently that plays \u201cdevil\u2019s advocate\u201d on the password security issue, and they made some fair points about how changing passwords too frequently can lead to decreased security as a whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[31,52,15],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}