Old Password Practices Must Change For The Cloud

A new fitness center opened up across the parking lot from our offices and apparently the owner is into "old school" fitness activities because he brings his clients into the parking lot frequently to push weighted metal blocking sleds across the parking lot, pound on tractor tires with sledge hammers and loudly grunt while lifting free weights.  Aside from the loud grunting outside my office window when I'm trying to talk on the phone, I don't really have a problem with some old school techniques. 

I am reminded, however, that other "old school" practices, particularly in todays information society, aren't necessarily a good thing.  I'm speaking specifically of the ways that some businesses keep a very casual attitude on security and passwords as they move to the Cloud.  In the "good old days" when PC's, workstations and servers were all maintained within a closed environment inside of a single building, businesses tended to be casual about things like passwords and physical security because of the sense of security they had when everything was under one roof. Like it or not, those days are disappearing rapidly.

Today's business are dealing with more mobile employees and their ever evolving mobile devices.  Access to company information is much more widely distributed and more easily accessible that ever before.  Yet, many employers haven't kept up with security Best Practices and cling to the old ways of enforcing security.  For whatever reason, security practices still lag way behind as employees now access company confidential information now located in the Cloud that once was behind a locked door.

When was the last time you sat down and reviewed your security procedures and audited your password protection practices?   Have you just exchanged the old employee practices of taping their passwords to their monitors or under they keyboard for the equivalent on their new portable devices that can be picked up by any stranger?  Is "1234" or "password" still their favorite password?  How often are they forced to change their password for that data in the cloud?

Remember, your server down the hall behind the locked door isn't there anymore.  It's out there in the Cloud and anybody with enough time and energy can steal your data if your don't keep your security practices up to date.

If you've been meaning to get around to thinking about security "one of these days" but can't seem to find the time.  Don't wait too long!  ACT has a free offer until the end of 2012 for a free security audit of your business IT so give us a call at (847) 639-7000.