There is a saying that you simply cannot repeat some things enough. One of those areas is security. Whilst physical security in terms of alarms, locked doors etc is as important, with this post we are focusing on data protection and namely passwords.

It has come across in our practice, that there are programs with no password at all or it is simply this week that it is essentially useless. When asked ‘why even bother with the password then if it is the same for everyone and (to make things worse) is only comprising of two characters?’ you usually don’t get a reasonable answer.

Since most accounting software programs and similar or supporting applications let you customize the password settings, it is best to make use of this.

For the password to really have a meaning it is supposed to have – protect your data and prevent any third access to it – there are a few things you should keep in mind when adjusting those settings (or first setting them up).

One key rule is the length of it – the longer the better obviously, so we suggest having it at least 6 characters long. Clearly it’s not only the length of it, but also the complexity, so as a general rule; the password should include at least one number and one capital letter. To make things a bit more tough for a hacker or any third party to guess, you may also add in the need for a sign (like ‘.’ or ‘,’ etc).

And to make sure the password isn’t essentially guessed or discovered and misused, there is always the possibility to make it ‘age’. We suggest having as a minimum three month period (but obviously the shorter the better) when the password needs to be changed. It can be in the form of a system prompt message (if possible) or simply change the passwords on admin level and in a secure way let everyone know of theirs.

Really think through your password settings and make sure you do the needed change to effectively protect your data.