Managing Passwords In Small Businesses

Paul Mah says small businesses need to implement self-service resetting of passwords and then clearly explain and enforce rules about password complexity.

"Bloomberg Businessweek recently published a short fact sheet on the state of password management in business. Titled 'The Problem with Passwords,' the short piece relied on data obtained from analysts and vendors to determine the amount of time it takes a hacker to force his way to a given password based on its complexity and length. I'll have more on that later.

In addition, it was also noted that the average cost of fielding a phone call for a password reset is $10, with a staggering 30 percent of help desk calls related to password management. Even more astounding perhaps, is the fact that one out of every two users will choose a "common word or simple key combination" for their password by default."