Knowhow-Now Article

The Value Of Adopting The Best Practices In Password Management

Large organizations utilize a lot of passwords because of a number of systems and applications they maintain. Whenever the users do not use any tool to store or manage their passwords, their ability to secure the passwords is weak and is faced with too many risks. It is common experience for these users to encounter difficulty remembering complicated passwords, different passwords, frequently changing passwords and passwords for seldom used systems. Either way, users are bound to forget the passwords unless some management is adopted. With password management, there is still no guarantee that it will be a hundred percent secure. This is the reason why one must adopt the best practices in password management.

The Strategy in Composing Hard-to-guess Passwords

The common problem that people encounter is having weak passwords that are easy to crack. While people may not bother with the cracking after a few guesses, there are software that are designed to automate the guessing using millions of possible combinations per second. Can your password stand that onslaught?

The strategy is simple: create strong passwords. Strong passwords are hard to crack. One must know what the usual or common patterns of creating passwords are and veer away from it as much as possible. There are best practices in password management. What are these proven best practices that you may adopt to ensure the strength of the passwords?

Here are some best practices that large companies use to protect their passwords:

• Use of large or long passwords to thwart attempts to hack the password. This will fail even with thorough search, thus eliminating possible guesses.

• Using combination words represented by English and non-English words like Latin character sets.

• Old passwords must not be recycled especially if it has already been compromised before. In certain systems, there are certain ways to prevent the reuse of old passwords. If the systems you are using do not have this restriction, you can impose this as a matter of policy.

• A good approach for large companies is to maintain an unlimited number of entries in the password history of each user. Disk storage is inexpensive that makes this solution practical even on modern systems. This is a good way to change the passwords often without the risk of reusing old passwords.

• To be able to enforce keeping a password history, companies need to provide user-friendly password management tools that the employees can use.

• Another strategy is the use of automated password synchronization and single sign-on. Synchronization technology helps users to keep the integrity of the passwords on several systems. Thus, synchronization makes it easier for users to remember without resorting to writing down their passwords or call for an IT specialist to seek help for a new password to replace the forgotten one.

• When large companies consider a single sign-one, they must thoroughly assess first the risks involved. While it is potentially a secured approach, it will still be largely influenced by the strength of the initial authentication and the strength of the stored credentials. For instance, if the password that is the principal way to authenticate the user is weak, the encryption key cannot protect the password because it will still be attacked by guessing.

• It is important to lockout the user when intruder is detected. Intrusion is detected when there are too many failed attempts.

• Passwords may also be stored on workstations that are transmitted to a server in some form. This form can be in the encrypted passwords that the user may use each time he/she signs into the system or application.

The truth is, no password is completely secure. One can only make guessing a little more difficult for hackers. By adopting certain best practices in password management, one can only hope that attackers will stop when the going gets tough.

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