Bad passwords: bad business

Hospitality industry employees use pathetically weak passwords, new shock research has revealed.

The study conducted by alarm security experts, NordPass shows the use of weak passwords is rife across the sector and makes it very easy for hackers to access accounts.

The top three passwords used in the hospitality industry are:

1. Password
2. 123456
3. Company name123 *

Weak passwords are one of the top causes of data breaches in business says Chad Hammond, security expert at NordPass.

He said: “Businesses and their employees have a duty to protect their customers’ data. A weak password of one employee could potentially jeopardize the whole company if an attacker used the breached password to gain access to sensitive data.”

Simple passwords are very dangerous to all users, but businesses and their employees need to take extra care when it comes to cybersecurity. For example, back in February, a water treatment facility in Florida had a serious computer breach. The company used an unsupported version of Windows with no firewall and shared the same TeamViewer password among its employees. And in December 2020, SolarWinds suffered from a big data breach, reportedly due to protecting one of their servers with the password “solarwinds123”.

 

Data breach cost

According to an IBM report, an average global cost of a data breach is $3.86 million. However, a data breach in the healthcare industry costs much more, $7.13 million. And out of all countries, data breaches in US-based companies are the most expensive, $8.64 million. According to Statista, the cost consists of things like: lost business resulting from diminished trust or confidence of customers; costs related to detection, escalation, and notification of the breach; ex-post response activities, such as credit report monitoring

In addition to that, counties in the European Union face GDPR fines, which are maximum €20 million or 4 percent of the annual global turnover, whichever is greater.

How can businesses increase their password hygiene?

1. Create complex and unique passwords, update them regularly, and store them in a password manager. Adopting a password manager for company-wide use is your best bet to maintain the security of your business accounts. A password management solution provides a secure way to store, share, and manage passwords in a single place.
2. Use multi-factor authentication or single sign-on. Companies should use multi-factor authentication where available for an added layer of security. Another great idea is to leverage single sign-on and password synchronization. With single sign-on, employees are less likely to revert to bad password practices, such as creating common passwords or writing them down.
3. Educate your employees on password hygiene and potential risks

It’s important to note that employees should avoid mixing their work and personal accounts. This ensures that your personal identity is not only protected, but also any information related to your employer is safeguarded in the event of a breach.

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”15046″ align=”left” padding=”20″]Consumer-facing breaches can extend beyond personal accounts, potentially exposing the enterprise as well. Data breaches like this can create a domino effect across multiple organizations through the reuse of credentials across personal and business accounts.

Methodology: The list of passwords was compiled in partnership with a third-party company specializing in data breach research. They analyzed data from public third-party breaches that affected Fortune 500 companies. In total, the analyzed data included 15,603,438 breaches and was categorized into 17 different industries. The researchers looked into the top 10 passwords used in each industry, the percentile of unique passwords, and the number of data breaches affecting each industry.

ABOUT NORDPASS

NordPass is a password manager for both B2B and B2C clients. It’s powered by the latest technology for the utmost security. Developed with affordability, simplicity, and ease-of-use in mind, NordPass allows users to access passwords securely on desktop, mobile, and browsers. All passwords are encrypted on the device, so only the user can access them. NordPass was created by the experts behind NordVPN — the advanced security and privacy app trusted by more than 14 million customers worldwide. For more information: nordpass.com.