Security Magazine: Longer Passwords Help to Prevent Fraud, Security Breach
Hikvision Cybersecurity Director Outlines Password Best Practices
Researchers from Indiana University (IU) “found that requiring longer and more complicated passwords resulted in a lower likelihood of password reuse,” according to an article in industry publication, Security magazine.
The researchers analyzed password policies for 22 U.S. universities, including IU. Large data sets containing more than 1.3 billion email address and password combinations were reviewed. The findings uncovered that using the same email and password to login to multiple sites increases the risk of security breach, and strict password rules lower university risk.
In the report, “Factors Influencing Password Reuse” the authors summarized their findings: "Our paper shows that passphrase requirements such as a 15-character minimum length deter the vast majority of IU users (99.98 percent) from reusing passwords or passphrases on other sites. Other universities with fewer password requirements had reuse rates potentially as high as 40 percent.”
In the article, the authors recommend minimum passwords be more than eight characters, don’t allow a username inside a password, and apply multi-factor authentication.
Click here to read the entire Security magazine article.
Hikvision’s director of cybersecurity, Chuck Davis, has offered a list of best practices for passwords, which include changing the default passwords and creating a long, strong password with multiple characters. Click here to read more.