The future of passwords is not dead: don’t forget your passwords just yet
The number of IoT, mobile and even on-prem devices and employees that use them continue to grow in today’s network driven environment which means more passwords and credentials are needed.
In the past, there have been reports predicting a password-free future. But don’t lose your passwords just yet. According to a recent report by Cybersecurity Ventures, the password landscape widens which means so do the risks. Looking at just the Fortune 500 companies alone, the report predicts that employees will be juggling a total of 5.4 billion password-protected accounts by 2020, with about 1.35 million privileged accounts.
With the increased risk there are lots of opportunities to compromise your company’s secret sauce, gain financial insight, or even compromise your employee’s personal information and no company is immune.
Look at some of the big breach disclosures that happened in the last 12 months:
- Yahoo – 1B passwords/credentials compromised
- Dropbox – 68M passwords/credentials compromised
- LinkedIn – 117M passwords/credentials compromised
Although no company is immune to risk there are a few steps you can take to tighten your risk, including:
- Create better secure passwords
- Preform a regular pen test on your environment
- Invest in effective Identity and Access Management tools now to avoid big payout later