What does your underwear have to do with passwords?

passwords graphic“Passwords are like underwear.” That’s what Andrew Healey, senior director of engineering at ISOutsource, said when he presented a business practice brown-bag for us. It got a chuckle, that’s for sure. But you know what, passwords are like underwear. Andrew didn’t just talk about underwear, though, in his “Are You Exposed? Safe Computing Tactics to Keep Data Secure” presentation. He spoke about Internet and email security. About patching and updating. About people and culture. About how your printers are also vulnerable to security breaches. He talked about how keep-your-data-secure training for all of your employees is important, and how having policies in place can help keep your data secure.

And let’s not forget about the underwear he mentioned. Passwords are like underwear:

  • They shouldn’t be left lying around.
  • They should be changed often.
  • They shouldn’t be shared with friends.
  • They shouldn’t be left out for others to see.

Did you laugh at that? That’s okay, go ahead and chuckle like we did. But it’s good to remember that each time you have to create a new password or change your current password—wouldn’t you agree?