TaylorWorks, Inc. Blog

You might wonder how it is possible that people can guess the passwords of others, but it turns out that it’s a bit easier than you might at first think. According to a new study, not only has a significant portion of the population tried to guess someone else’s password, but even more of them are successful in doing so. How can this be, and what can we learn from this trend?

Securing your digital platforms has to be a major point of emphasis for every business. For years, having a password was enough to keep unauthorized entities out of secured accounts. Those days are effectively over. With threats multiplying and getting more and more dangerous, companies have to do more to secure their IT. This month, we thought we’d take a look at some of the best practices in creating passwords and alternatives that can help you better protect your business’ technology. 

Many organizations are pushing for two-factor authentication, and it is easy to see why. The benefits are so great and the risks so devastating (and unnecessary) that there is no good reason to not implement two-factor authentication. Let’s discuss what two-factor authentication is, why it matters, and how you can set it up for your Microsoft, Google, and Apple accounts.

Passwords are quite literally everywhere nowadays. With so much of modern life now controlled or held within user accounts, keeping your passwords both secure and straight in your head is crucial. Many web browsers now offer some built-in password management utility to help make this process more convenient for the user, but is this option available at the cost of security?

While we would strongly recommend that you update your passwords more than once a year, now is as good a time as any to do so. Reflecting on this, let’s go over how to fully lock down your Microsoft accounts.

If you haven’t taken the time to go through and update your passwords lately, particularly the one protecting your Google account, you should do so… despite it undeniably being a pain. After all, Google serves various purposes and is attached to many accounts for most. Considering the number of data breaches and other cybersecurity issues this potentially contributes to, you will want to ensure your Google account is properly locked down.

A lot is made about data breaches and hackers, but I think you’d be surprised to find out that over 80 percent of cyberattacks are the result of stolen authentication credentials. This has led many security-minded IT administrators to try and find a better way than the old username & password strategy that we’ve all been using for as long as there have been user accounts. One organization that is actively making waves trying to replace the username/password combo is Microsoft. They are at the forefront of the move to passwordless authentication.

Many businesses need their employees to do the same thing day-in and day-out. With that type of repetitiveness, situations pop up where some crucial stuff is overlooked. Employees that are distracted with their own productivity are susceptible to making mistakes that could have dire consequences for your business. This month we thought we would give you a few pointers on how to communicate the importance of vigilance to your dedicated employees.

Passwords are not a modern invention by any stretch, but as we have dealt with them for so long, there are a lot of bad habits that many people have adopted. That’s why we felt that it was appropriate for us to call out some of these habits and discuss some better options for you to adopt.

Passwords are hard to remember - there’s no denying that. However, there is also no denying how important it is to use different ones for each account, all sufficiently complex, and all the rest. The point is, a lot of people use bad password practices because (to be frank) good password practices are too intimidating. There has to be some kind of acceptable middle ground… right?

It’s one thing to implement password security for your business, but another entirely to convince your users that it’s for the best in regards to network security, rather than implementing it as an annoyance to them. Your organization should make using new passwords and best practices as easy as possible to expedite the security process.

What would you do if a stranger claimed to have compromising webcam footage of you and threatened to share it with your contacts? A new, very convincing email scam is making some users very nervous.

In the wake of the Equifax data breach, which placed the personal information of 143 million users at risk, the issue of data security is at the forefront of social consciousness. Your organization needs to go about its daily business as if it will experience a data breach at any given moment. This involves looking at the worst-case scenario, and planning for it so that you’re never caught unaware.

Your identity has quite a lot of value, especially in the wrong hands. Security firm ZoneAlarm put together some numbers in 2011 concerning identity fraud, and it even shocked us. Let's talk about a few of these statistics and what it means.