Complexity

Choosing an appropriate and secure password is vital when ensuring the protection of a corporate identity. Long gone are the days when P-A-S-S-W-O-R-D was an acceptable password, and IT admins need to get strict on the types of passwords that will make the cut. IT needs the capability to define minimum attributes for passwords, including length (arguably the most important feature of a secure password), and character type to control each password's strength. While employees may get annoyed by long, overly complicated passwords that entail lower and uppercase letters, numbers and symbols, this is the first line of defense to stop hackers from accessing corporate identities.

To assist in this effort, many tools on the market support generating complex passwords. Keepass is a password manager with a five-star rating on SourceForge. This tool is open source so its integrity can be scrutinized by anyone. Keepass can be run out of your browser, is easy to use, and doesn't automatically put your database in the cloud, which makes it even more secure. LastPass enables employees to utilize and manage highly complex passwords across both work and personal accounts without having to memorize or store them somewhere insecure like a Word document or spreadsheet. It also has a feature that points out vulnerabilities in passwords and fixes them.