It is best to keep abreast with the ever evolving technological issues to keep your business safe and secure so here are the latest technological updates that your IT service provider in Brisbane most likely already knows.
Microsoft Against Dumb Passwords
Microsoft has made the lives of IT service providers in Brisbane and all over the world easier by raising the bar on acceptable passwords making it harder for cyber criminals to break through password protected barriers. The infamous tech company is putting together a dynamic list of dumb passwords that will not be permitted to be used for online accounts to defend people from their own negligence. Microsoft has created simple regulations to force people into using better passwords that are a little more secure and longer than stupid passwords like “password1” or just “password”. These kinds of employees are a nightmare for IT service providers in Brisbane that are working hard to keep business networks safe.
Traditional methods of requiring longer passwords and asking people to use a mix of characters just make lazy people add a number or two onto their usual passwords – e.g. “password2”, and later “password321.” Enforcing regular password changes could also be detrimental because people are likely to pick weaker passwords, something very simple which results in a typical pattern.
Your IT service providers in Brisbane may have warned you and your employees to use longer and safer passwords but people, most often than not, just fall back into the habit of choosing passwords that they can easily remember, because it is very similar to their old ones. Your IT service providers in Brisbane know that hackers rely heavily on the truth that most people are lazy when it comes to creating and changing passwords because lazy passwords like “qwerty”, “password”, and “654321” often appear on lists of stolen passwords and these dumb passwords are the first that hackers test when trying to breach security.
IT service providers in Brisbane know that hackers’ chances for success in trying to breach through security using company employee’s dumb passwords are disturbingly high so this countermeasure from Microsoft is really good news for them. If any of your employees try to use any of these so called dumb passwords for Microsoft accounts, they will be politely told to pick a password that will be harder for people to guess. Pretty soon, users will not be able to just add another character to their usual dumb passwords, like “password” to “123password”, because such words will have been added to the list of banned dumb passwords. Inquire with your IT service provider in Brisbane as to what tools they may have in helping you and your employees in creating better passwords.
More Than 100 Million LinkedIn Passwords Breached
Do you and your employees have LinkedIn accounts? If yes, then it would be best to ask your Brisbane IT service provider to help generate hard to breach passwords for your accounts. In 2012, Linked forced users to change their passwords for most of the 6.5 million accounts that were affected by the breach when a hacker posted LinkedIn passwords on the World Wide Web. Recently, LinkedIn was made aware that an additional bunch hashed password and email combinations of over 100 million users has been posted online. They said that it came from the 2012 theft and there were no indications that it resulted from a new breach in security this year. Hani Durzy, the LinkedIn spokesman, mentioned that they already have a the information on the 117 million user database and they believe it to be authentic accounts. The spokesman however declined to comment on which steps are being taken to resolve the issue at the moment and why they have enforced another password reset for not all users but only a select few LinkedIn accounts. He said that most of the mentioned accounts are very much active and are still under investigation.
LeakedSource said that a small number effortlessly guessed passwords comprised a little over than 2 million of the passwords (117 million) that were disclosed in the theft. Many of these LinkedIn accounts are linked to active Facebook users so it would be best to inquire with your IT service provider in Brisbane as to how they can help you and your employees in creating stronger passwords for when you change passwords for both your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
