How to Encourage Better Password Hygiene in the Workplace (Guest blog)

In order to keep a business safe and thriving, every employee needs to do their part to keep data secure. A large part of keeping data safe revolves around password management.  

While strong password habits are important for each and every employee, it’s especially important for HR professionals that have access to sensitive employee data such as bank account information and personal information such as addresses. And with an increase in remote and hybrid work, it’s even more important for employees to improve their password habits. 

When HR employees practice strong password habits, this can be a great model for the rest of the company. Below we break down key password statistics and offer tips for improving password management in your office.  

11 Password Statistics that Highlight the Importance of Good Password Habits

With more than 15 billion stolen credentials for sale on the dark web, there’s a good chance one of your employees has had their information hacked before. Below, we highlight some of the weak passwords to avoid. 

1.    The most common password of 2021 was "123456," which would take hackers less than one second to crack. (NordPass)
2.    A 2021 study found that the average American was locked out of 10 online accounts in one month. (SWNS/OnePoll survey for LastPass)
3.    After examining 5 million breached passwords from the Gmail hack of 2014, most passwords for both men and women were eight characters in length. (WPEngine)
4.    Nearly 500,000 of the 10 million passwords WPEngine examined ended with a number between 0 and 99. (WPEngine)
5.    57% of people will immediately forget their new password after resetting it. (SWNS/OnePoll survey for LastPass)
6.    64% of people will avoid visiting certain websites or accounts if they know they’ve forgotten their password. (SWNS/OnePoll survey for LastPass)
7.    36% of people engage in bad password habits because they believe their accounts are not valuable enough for hackers. (LastPass)
8.    80% of data breaches are linked to passwords. (Verizon)
9.    62.9% of online users change their passwords only when prompted. (GoodFirms)
10.    Even though 92% of people know that using a variation of the same password is a risk, 65% always or mostly use the same password or a variation. (LastPass)
11.    62% of employees say they store login credentials in a notebook or journal, leaving them accessible to prying eyes. (Keeper Security)

3 Tips for Improving Password Security in Your Office 

1.    Make password education part of employee onboarding: Since HR often creates onboarding and offboarding processes, it’s a good idea to fold password education into the onboarding process. This ensures that all employees understand what’s expected of them when it comes to password creation and maintenance. 
2.    Create a password policy: Creating a uniform policy that outlines password expectations for employees can be a great way to enforce better password habits. This policy should include specific requirements for password creation.
3.    Reset passwords every 90 days: It’s also a good idea to reset passwords on a regular basis. You can do this manually or through a password manager. 

Better password hygiene is just one way to improve the overall security of your business. With passwords continuing to be an important part of work life, encouraging better password hygiene today will help secure your business for the future.