Is your carefully chosen password as secure as you think it is?
HR is a goldmine for confidential personal information that’s often the target of identity thieves. Anyone working in the HR department needs to be careful about keeping that data safe. The first step: secure passwords.
Some tips for passwords that are tough for hackers to break:
- Use at least 8 characters, with a mix numbers and upper and lowercase letters. When a password’s only made up of five letters, there are 11.9 million possible combinations. Sound pretty safe? Not when you consider that a password with eight mixed characters has 899.2 trillion possibilities.
- Come up with nonsense. Many people create passwords out of actual words or phrases, because they’re easy to remember. But those are also easier for hackers to find out.
- Change it up. Everyone in the HR department should come up with a new password once a month. One tip: Load monthly reminders on your and staffers’ computers.
- Log off. The best password in the world doesn’t do any good if the user stays logged in constantly. When working with sensitive information, it’s important to log when stepping away even briefly. Otherwise, any passer-by should find a screen full of valuable info.