Yaron Assabi | CEO | Founder | Digital Solutions Group | mail me |
Passwords remain a risk, despite being one of the most common security measures around. The drive towards a ‘passwordless’ environment begins with a solution that can create, automate, protect and manage your existing passwords.
Passwords as a form of security date back centuries, evolving from verbal statements to written words and on to secret codes. Passwords today are almost ubiquitous as an IT infrastructure security tool, and yet they are, ultimately, insecure.
The most obvious way to gain access to a company’s network
A cursory glance at security statistics will determine that passwords remain one of the most obvious and easily-compromised ways for bad actors to gain access to a company’s network.
Whether it is through password leaks, the use of bad or ineffective passwords by employees, or simple social engineering tactics that compromise an individual’s credentials, the password is no longer the security feature it once was.
“While there has been a lot of talk about implementing ‘passwordless’ environments, getting there is a journey, and many businesses are not implementing password management best practices, which are the precursor to a passwordless environment. This is worrying, as one of our recent surveys indicates that currently, some 85% of breaches involve a human element, with at least 80% of these being directly related to passwords.”
– Umut Albay, Principal Regional Sales Manager, Africa at LastPass
It is exacerbated by the fact that people are creating around 50% more accounts today than they were a mere two years ago, meaning the potential attack surface is increasing significantly.
Compromised passwords are concerning
It is interesting that although it appears that awareness of the security challenges is high, the impetus to change things for the better is not. 79% of people agree that compromised passwords are concerning, yet the percentage of those who rely on memory to keep track of passwords still sits at more than 50% .
More frightening from a security perspective is that 92% state that, while they know using the same password multiple times is a risk, some 65% still continue to do so, with a full 45% claiming not to change their passwords at all – which is why we recommend automating things instead.
There is no doubt that a passwordless approach is the future of cybersecurity, as demonstrated by the fact that the two biggest challenges employees face are the fear of a security breach, closely followed by the problem of having ‘too many passwords’. On the other side of the coin, the cybersecurity team’s challenge lies in striking the correct balance between strong security and a simplified user experience.
In conclusion
We were one of the first local e-commerce providers to launch, and have faced more than our share of fraud attempts. For this reason, security has always been a key focus.
While true passwordless functionality is not yet here, the password management solution certainly lays the foundation and direction for the path to true passwordlessness.
Designed to make the password management process easy, it is easy to use, secure, and implemented according to best practices. Boiled down to its essence, it allows management and employees to leverage really complicated passwords for security purposes, without compromising the user experience in any way.
