Sticky notes or Post-it’s® are not a suitable place for the permanent storage of passwords. Any password written down allows identity theft and subsequently unauthorized access to information. Therefore, keep your passwords in a safe place.
Even if it is difficult in everyday life, access codes should not be written down here:
- Post-it’s®
- notebooks
- the desk pad
- as a note under the notebook or under the keyboard
Recommended on the other hand:
- mnemonic bridges for complex passwords
- password apps / password safe approved by the company
- encrypted containers for access data
- Certificate login (=replacement of username / password login)
- Implementation of one-time password solutions
- Implementation of single sign-on solutions
- How complex does a password have to be?
If you still use simple passwords there are free tools on the internet how to test the password strength. e.g. the password check of the site PC-Feuerwehr. On such sites please test only passwords similar to the ones you use, because every free provider also stores your data temporarily or permanently and in combination with your IP address after the test otherwise knows your most important passwords. For the test, we tried a typical combination of first name and year:
Your password ‘Harald2017’ is insecure!
- To classify your password we use a point system.
- A weak password reaches a maximum of 60 points.
- A reasonably secure password scores between 65 and 75 points.
- A secure password scores at least 80 points.
Total score 60
You can find a list of all security awareness tips from SEC4YOU in our sticky notes.
