Today, everything from applications on our mobile phones to social networking accounts to computer systems has passwords. A password is a set of characters, letters, numbers or words used to authenticate and protect a digital system. Passwords ensure that the computer system or data is accessible only to those users who have been granted access to it by a password. They help to protect systems from unauthorized users. Passwords are the most common and widely used access control methods in the digital world. Passwords date back to the 1960-70s when the first device requiring a proper password was invented. Nowadays due to the vast usage of electronic devices and the internet, passwords are very important to protect the user’s privacy.
The web has become a malicious place and user authentication has become the need of the hour. One of the biggest challenges today has become protecting and securing our data. It is very crucial to protect sensitive data which is why passwords have become so important in the digital environment.
It has become very common for employees to share passwords with each other in a company. This password sharing is done for various reasons; to make it easier for a team to access each other’s work and data, to allow the team leader to supervise the work easily and work together more efficiently. Nowadays, people are known to share their passwords with more than 5-6 people. Although the intentions behind sharing the password might be positive, it is still very risky to share your password with anyone. When multiple people on the same team use the same account and password, it can become difficult to keep track of who did what work. This makes it very difficult to track the culprit if there is a misuse of sensitive data. Some people use the same password for several devices and accounts, thus, sharing one password can make it very easy for someone to access other accounts with the same password. Nowadays employees prefer to work on their own devices as working hours and spaces have become more flexible. Using the same password on non-company devices can prove to be a threat to the company’s data. Moreover, if an employee leaves the company, they still have the password and thus unauthorized access to the company’s accounts and data. Another major problem with password sharing is Single Sign On (SSO). While it may sound like a good idea to have the same password for several accounts, it becomes very dangerous when that one password is shared with someone else, risking a lot of personally and professionally sensitive information.
There are a few ways in which the dangers of password sharing can be prevented:
Making use of a collaborative inbox is a constructive approach towards preventing the risks of password sharing. Here each employee has his/her own user ID and password to the common inbox. This reduces workload, makes collaborating with other team members easier and also keeps the inbox safe from a cybersecurity point of view.
Companies can also make use of biometric logins to completely eliminate the risk that password sharing brings to the table.
These methods can be employed to create safer environments for business activities in a company.
Password sharing is very harmful to the individual and the company at large and should be avoided at all costs for better and efficient functioning of the company. After all digital property and data has become even more important than physical wealth today.