Passwords Still Give Small Businesses Trouble, Says LastPass Report

In today’s business environment, where ransomware strikes just as often as just about any other threat out there, you need to take as many precautions as possible so that your organization does not become another victim or statistic. All it takes is looking at reports from various security firms to understand just how important even the most basic of security measures—the password—is toward keeping businesses safe.

It's best practice to use complex passwords for each of your accounts, but sometimes the sheer number of passwords that employees use can create problems with remembering these complex credentials. This is perhaps why many employees struggle with passwords, often reusing them to the detriment of their security efforts. Here are some statistics regarding passwords as presented in a report by LastPass:

• Small businesses with 1-25 employees have an average of 85 passwords per employee.
• Larger companies with over 1,000 employees have an average of 25 passwords per employee.
• Employees reuse a password an average of 13 times.
• Businesses with less than 1,000 employees have the highest rates of reusing passwords at 10-14 times per user.
• Compare this to the lower rates of reusing passwords for businesses with more than 1,000 employees, which sits at 4 times per user.

The numbers speak for themselves; passwords are not enough to protect accounts, and small businesses are some of the biggest offenders in this regard. Password managers do tend to help this issue, as they create a secure vault for storing multiple complex passwords, but they can only do so much on their own. We recommend that you supplement password security with multi-factor authentication that utilizes biometrics, a secondary account, or a mobile device.

It’s not always easy, though. According to LastPass, larger businesses and enterprises are more likely to have implemented multi-factor authentication than small businesses. Statistics say that companies with over 10,000 employees have an 87% adoption rate of multi-factor authentication compared to businesses with under 25 employees having only an adoption rate of 27%. The difference is quite shocking and is indicative of an issue that needs to be addressed.

As for why small businesses do not implement multi-factor authentication, we can posit some ideas. One might be that they have a limited budget to work with, and another might be that they do not have a dedicated IT department to implement the solution and get it set up properly. Regardless, when you consider the fact that 43% of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, this is a disaster just waiting to happen.

Computerware can help your business implement powerful password management tools and multi-factor authentication solutions that can help secure your organization’s most important assets. To learn more, reach out to us at (703) 821-8200.