Business Continuity Awareness Week: password security

As part of Business Continuity Awareness Week we will today be taking a look at password protection.

Within the Trust we use passwords for a number of different things, such as logging in to networks, individual systems, or even our own hand held devices. Our own personal desktop accounts force us to change our password on a monthly basis. This in itself can cause problems as there is a temptation to just change parts of the password.

Most websites now insist that passwords are eight characters long with at least one upper case letter, one upper case letter and one symbol included. The longer and more complicated you make your password, the better security it will give you. If you struggle with having to keep coming up with a variety of long words then try using memorable phrases instead. Avoid using basic facts, however, as these can be easy to guess.

If there is an opportunity to use a variety of characters and letters, then take advantage of this. Vary when capital letters are used and try replacing certain letters with numbers and symbols. For example ‘@’ could be used instead of ‘A’, ‘$’ could be used instead of ‘S’.

We would recommend that you vary your passwords for each individual log in that you require. That way, if one account is hacked, there is less risk of the others becoming compromised.

Published 19th May, 2017