Password Strength Checkers: Best Practices for a More Secure IT Environment

Today, there are many password strength checkers and other validation tools available online. But, such abundance comes with some challenges. Businesses and IT leaders must determine the IAM tool they can trust with their possible and current credentials. In addition, they should understand what these tools can teach their staff about identity management. But, before using password checkers, it is important to understand password best practices.

The majority of password strength checks judge credentials based on complexity and strength. A password of 12 characters is more secure than a password of 8 characters. In general, it is important to include letters in upper and lower case, punctuation, and numbers. But, identity and password experts recommend not using sequencing in passwords because cracking programs used by hackers can identify patterns easily and exploit them.

Keep reading to learn more about the best password security best practices:

Not Allowing the Use of Repeated Passwords

For most employees, remembering different passwords to do their job is overwhelming. But, they should not repeat passwords in either their personal and professional lives. Also, they must not cross-use their credentials.

Not Allowing Password Sharing

Employees can share their passwords with others, usually to facilitate business processes and efficiencies. This results in more insider threats and a loss of control over users’ access. Employers should place serious penalties in place for sharing passwords to reduce or eliminate the possibility. Also, employees must be forbidden from writing down their passwords.

Not Including Personal Information into Passwords

It is common for people to include birthdays in their passwords. But, social media research and other types of open personal information let hackers conduct significant research on their targets without exerting too much effort. With this, they can easily inflict subtler social engineering and phishing attacks. Also, they can use this information for guessing users’ passwords. Hackers know that users tend to create passwords they can easily remember that can include anything related to their interests.

 When choosing a password strength checker, opt for one that you can trust. A trustworthy validation does not store your passwords. Instead, they must only possess your passwords in the browser. Also, password checkers must be used as intended, which is to show why using typical passwords is not enough ion modern identity management. Ensure your employees have them to know how to write string passwords. Also, you can use these validation tools to help you formulate your password policies.