IT services professionals in Dallas definitely advise businesses to use passwords or passphrases–or both, depending on the context. Passwords tend to be more secure than passphrases for a variety of reasons, provided they’re regularly updated. We’ll explore these alternatives here.

Which Is Better for Your Business?

Managed services providers (MSPs) in Dallas may recommend many different solutions for security. With passphrase management, questions, answers, and phrases do get stored somewhere, making them vulnerable to hackers; but not always. With passwords, updating is integral, or those passwords can be brute-force hacked with regularity. In either scenario, access info must be updated. Some businesses hybridize. So, let’s briefly explore all three alternatives:

Passwords

IT services experts in Dallas advise that the more secure your business is, the better it will be to have passwords that are updated regularly. Some secure operations have daily password updates, some only do it once a week, some once a month.

A month is really the longest you should go without updating passwords–only change it yearly, and you’re wide open. Passwords should be at least eight characters, have letters, numbers, capitals, and symbols. Password generation and management is key for best results.

Passphrases

A passphrase is longer and should be more complex, but if hackers can figure out the question which prompts it, they may deduce the phrase. That said, a Bible verse, for example, which includes the chapter and verse, can be quite secure. Especially if you change the verse regularly and use a niche translation.

Numbers, letters, capitals, and characters will likely come into play in a verse, and what is written can be easy to remember. Poetry, lines from movies–many different passphrases have their own security potential; just be sure you can remember them, and you’ve got a system for plugging in new ones at intervals.

Hybridization

Some MSPs advise using both passwords and passphrases for added security, switching one or both of them to increase how unpredictable your security measures are to hackers. Many government facilities go with this method.

Properly Securing Operations

Our IT services team in Dallas can help you determine if passwords, passphrases, or hybridizing between the two is best for your business. Different operations have different proclivities; it will depend on your needs. Contact us at Technagy for more information and advice on which may best fit your particular business.