Just how effective is your company’s cybersecurity? Many companies would benefit from asking this themselves. Cyberattacks are more common than ever before, and hackers’ methods for breaching your company’s network are becoming increasingly complex.
Cybersecurity breaches were especially problematic at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, when companies across all industries were left vulnerable due to the sudden switch to a remote work environment.
Even with the majority of business owners knowing the importance of quality cybersecurity, most companies are wildly unprepared to deal with a cyberattack. And the costs of recovering after a cyberattack can quickly add up. While it’s incredibly expensive to repair the damage done to your data, it can cost so much more.
Many Americans have stressed how important it is that a company keep their data secure. If your company suffers a data breach and the customer’s information is compromised, that could mean the end of your company.
But there are ways for businesses to beef up their cybersecurity. The most effective method? Utilizing an enterprise password manager to ensure smart and secure password usage in your company.
Why Use A Password Manager?
Improper password usage is the cause of over 80% of data breaches. For most people, this comes as no surprise. After all, many people feel anxious about the possibility of being hacked, and the psychological damage of a hack can take a serious toll on one’s mental well-being. Despite all of these fears regarding their digital security, many people still use weak and predictable passwords.
It’s also incredibly common for people to use the same password across all of their accounts (which is about 100 for the average American). This becomes especially hazardous when people use the same passwords in their professional and personal lives.
But a password manager can drastically improve password usage in the office, as it takes most of the work of password management off of your employees.
No more having to constantly create new passwords, remember the new passwords, worry if those passwords are unique enough – the password manager does all of this for you.
It can generate unique passwords, automatically encrypt them, and store them in the employee’s individual business password vault (several password managers also include a personal vault as well).
How Does A Password Manager Help My Company?
Employees (and often, managers) can be far too lax with keeping their passwords secure. It’s incredibly common for employees to write down their passwords, or store them in an unencrypted file on their desktop.
By using their password manager vault, employees are able to effectively secure all of their passwords.
Password managers also remove the burden of having to constantly create new and unique passwords that are difficult for hackers to crack. Another standard feature for password managers is a password generator.
When an employee sets up a new account, the password generator automatically creates a strong password for that account.
And those passwords are kept in the most discreet manner, thanks to the use of zero-knowledge encryption. When a new password is generated and stored in the vault, the manager automatically encrypts it.
So even though the manager software is storing your passwords, it can’t actually read them.
To make password hygiene even easier for your company, most password managers reduce the amount of manual logins an employee has to do. All the employee has to do is enter their master password, and they have instant access to all their accounts.
While there are those who are still apprehensive about trusting a password manager to secure their data, it really is the best option for securing passwords.
Features to Consider
While all of the previously mentioned features come standard with most password management software, there are other factors to consider when making your decision.
For starters, the number of employees you have will obviously affect costs, though password managers typically charge less than $10 a month per user. For smaller companies, a more limited version could cost less. Some programs even offer a free version.
But these versions typically only allow access across a handful of devices (sometimes only one device). For companies that are currently enacting a Bring Your Own Device policy, this may be far too limiting.
The same could be said for employees who work in a hybrid office setting, splitting their working hours between a home office and their regular business commute.
And while the standard features already offer a robust solution for maintaining tight password security, there are other features to consider. Many password managers offer additional features such as dark web monitoring, message encryption, and multi-factor authentication (think fingerprint scanning or facial recognition technology).
While there are many options out there that can offer your company the most robust password security measures, it will be best to research which one is best for YOUR company, as many programs offer very similar features. Regardless, any extra password protection is better than none at all.
