Businesses are being urged to create longer passwords amid growing fears of a surge in cyber-attacks.
Following a series of high-profile attacks by pro-Russian hackers on the FBI website and Australian private health insurance giant Medibank in recent weeks, large organisations are believed to have begun bolstering their digital defences to protect against criminal activity.
Cyber experts are urging firms struggling to finance major upgrades to take action by increasing the length of their passwords.
Linten Technologies, a UK cyber security specialist, said just one extra character could be the difference between losing access to company files and being alerted before cyber criminals gain access.
CEO and founder Steven Allan commented: “Passwords are undoubtedly the cyber security gatekeepers for most firms. It is vital that these are robust so that if an attack happens they effectively act as a first line of defence before hackers gain access.
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“Research has shown that by simply adding one extra letter, digit or symbol to a password can make all the difference.”
Allan explained that typically a 10-character password can take hackers just 26 minutes to break, whereas a password with 11 characters can take about three days.
He added: "Previously eight to 12 characters were typical password lengths, but now between 10 to 18 and sometimes 16 to 24 characters are increasingly becoming the standard.”
According to the UK government’s annual Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 31% of businesses and 26% of charities identified a cyber-attack at least once every week.
Allan, who launched Linten Technologies in 1999, said making small and cost-effective changes to cyber defences will make it significantly more difficult for hackers to breach a network.
“We always advise clients to stay well away from common password types such as ‘password123’ or the names of loved ones,” he said. “These are very easy to penetrate and will not provide the level of protection needed in the coming years.
“It is recommended to incorporate a password with three random words that is hard to figure out.
“Just a few password tweaks can make a real difference in protecting business assets and identifying attacks before security is completely breached.”
