Implementing the following practices will ensure that you minimize your risk of becoming a victim of a cybercriminal.
Running any company, big or small, requires you to use a multitude of softwares and subscriptions to better manage workflow and improve the productivity of your employees..
Naturally, these softwares are not tailor-made for your firm and yet, you end up having to use quite a few of them in order to cover all the different aspects of your business
Now you will run into the trouble of having to develop and manage passwords for all these different services, and the last thing you would want is to have a terrible password policy that leaves you vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Here are 5 easy methods to better protect your firm from any sort of password-related mishaps.

1. Use Password Managers

You may think that adding another software to the list of things to manage may seem like a bad idea, but there is reason to consider this option.
Password managers are cloud-based softwares that encrypt and store all the different passwords that you use on a daily basis.
The advantage to using a password manager is that you can set it up for all your employees and then have them log in to their computers automatically without having to remember the passwords themselves.
This also keeps you safe from an employee potentially leaking a password as they will not need to know the passwords in order to log in to the different services that they use.
Now, this option is not without its downsides. A password manager uses its own master password that is needed to log in to the service.
This becomes the single point of failure for your password policy, and if, for any reason, you forget the master password or it gets leaked, you will be in a world of trouble.

2. Don’t Have Human Passwords.

What do I mean by this? Well, it makes sense when you think about it. Humans try to make passwords that are easiest to remember for them.
This also makes it easier for someone to guess a password if they know the other person quite well.
Instead, you should ask your employees to write passwords that do not contain any words or phrases that are used in regular language.
There are softwares that will generate such random passwords for you, and even Google does it by itself nowadays.

3. Change Passwords

Once you have set passwords for the different services being used in your firm, you will need to change them on occasion as well.
This will be really beneficial to your firm as even if your password is leaked at some point, it will no longer be up to date.
But one thing to keep in mind with this is that you shouldn’t change passwords too frequently. This is especially true if you have set passwords that are not easy to remember.
If your employees have to change passwords too frequently, then the chances are that they will get tired of the whole thing and just resort to using more simple passwords that are easier to guess.

4. Have a Reasonable Password Policy

As humans, it is natural for us to forget our passwords from time to time. Nearly every service has a safety feature for passwords wherein the account locks itself out after a certain amount of failed attempts.
If you are asking your employees to set difficult passwords, then it would only make sense for you to have a bit more lenient approach to such a feature.
This may sound counter-intuitive, but it serves a great purpose. If your employees don’t have to fear getting locked out of their accounts after just a couple of attempts, then they will be more comfortable with setting more complex passwords.
Another thing to keep in mind about your password policy is to strictly prohibit the sharing of passwords within the organization. This is one thing that you should not compromise on. Password sharing is extremely risky for any firm and should be entirely avoided at all costs.

5. Use 2 Factor Authentication

This is perhaps the best thing that you can do to keep your firm safe from a password leak.
2 Factor Authentication requires anyone logging in to a software to authenticate the log in via a second factor. This can be done via E-Mail or SMS.
As an owner, you can set the second factor to be a trusted source that can manage the one-time passwords for other employees.
2 Factor Authentication also helps in the case when a password gets leaked, or an account gets hacked.
Even if someone has the ability to log in to an account via traditional means, the second factor will always be able to prevent them from doing so.
This feature has proven to be a life saver for many accounts, and it is undoubtedly a great feature for you to use in your firm.

Summary

These have been the top practices you can employ in your company’s password policy to ensure that you remain safe from any sort of attack or leak.
These policies are a must for anyone who is trying to minimize cyber exposure and stay safe from cyberattacks.
In addition to using these policies, there is also a need for proper employee training about cyber safety. It is really important for your employees to understand the cyber risks and get familiar with the best practices regarding setting company passwords, and it is only possible to get that through proper training and coaching from a cyber expert.