Password Management for Midwifery Practices
When it comes to passwords, let’s face it, we could all be a little more secure. Well, we’re actually pretty secure over here, it’s our job after all, but it sounds rude to say YOU should be more secure with your passwords… But you should! Solid password management is truly one of the simplest and most effective ways to protect your midwifery practice. It’s one of the first things we look at together when we’re helping you sort out your cybersecurity.
We’re always a little sad when we see the results of a bad password management situation. And we get it, it’s a challenging thing to organize the hundreds of passwords that you have, and some of those accounts span personal and professional use for you as a business owner. But we have some tips for you to help make your password management a little easier:
- Use a password management software
Programs like LastPass are incredibly useful for business owners to store and share passwords with their whole team. When using these programs, it’s important to make sure your master password is carefully crafted and not shared. When you first set them up, you’ll want to go through all of your accounts and slowly but surely start to update your passwords to make them unique and secure.
- Don’t use the same password for multiple accounts/sites
By using multiple passwords, a unique password for each account, you avoid some danger. If one of your accounts/sites has a password stolen or hacked, the problem won’t be compounded across multiple accounts.
- Assign randomly generated passwords to your accounts
Once again, if any of your passwords becomes compromised, a randomly generated password with random letters, numbers, and symbols helps to protect your other accounts from hacking.
- Set up 2 factor authentication across all your accounts
Many websites these days are ditching passwords altogether in favor of 2 factor authentication, in fact. As a backup, it’s a good idea to link your phone number, your email, or even an authentication app to any accounts that will allow it. This way, if the security on the account is tripped in any way, you’ll have to confirm that you are the one accessing the account from a 2nd device.
We’re sure you’ve considered doing all these things before, but let this post be your motivation to get it done! If you keep your eye on your own security on a consistent basis, you will avoid some devastating issues down the road. An ounce of prevention goes a long way when it comes to your cybersecurity.