Human error is responsible for 88 percent of data breaches. This means someone's unintentional actions or failure to take action caused the breach.
In fact, the National Cyber Security Alliance found that after a data breach, 10 percent of small companies (up to 500 employees) went out of business, while 25 percent were forced into bankruptcy and nearly 40 percent suffered financial losses.
Unfortunately, weak passwords often play a role during cyber security acts. Hackers target login portals with brute force attacks, trying various passwords to see if one fits. Often, criminals use lists of the most common phrases like qwerty, 12345678, and 1q2w3e. Employees use these because they're easy to remember. But by doing so, they may welcome interlopers into your hardware and software.
Once a hacker gains access to platforms, back-ends, databases, payment information or other sensitive data, they can create chaos. And if this happens, you're not only at risk of suffering financial losses, but also brand damage. Customers may no longer trust your organization, especially if they get caught in the crossfire and their private info gets exposed (i.e. credit card numbers).
Github, Nintendo, Dunkin Donuts and many others have fallen victim to brute force attacks. Fortunately, simply strengthening passwords can ward off hackers before they ever get into your systems. That's why businesses big and small should implement strong password policies. Such guidelines require complex passwords, like mandating capital letters, numbers and symbols. Further, you can blacklist common, weak phrases like "password1234."
Don't have a strong password policy in place? Better now than never!
