Why Your Organization Shouldn’t Delay Getting a Password Manager

Your organization shouldn’t delay getting a password manager because using a password manager provides visibility into employee password habits, strengthens secure password practices, protects employees from spoofed websites and minimizes the risk of data breaches. A password manager is a solution that helps your employees store, manage and share their login credentials, passkeys, important documents and more. Rather than relying on a password manager built into a web browser, your organization should enforce the use of a standalone password manager to enhance overall security.

Continue reading to learn the risks of not using a password manager, how a password manager can help protect your organization from cyber threats and what you should look for in a password manager for your business.

The risks of not having a password manager

There are several risks associated with your organization not having a password manager, including the consequences of a data breach, limited insight into your employees’ password practices and an increased risk of employees falling for phishing scams.

Aftermaths of a data breach

Not using a password manager within your organization can have detrimental effects on its security, particularly if a data breach occurs. If one of your employee’s accounts is compromised due to password reuse or other poor password habits, a hacker can access private information by exploiting the same password across multiple accounts. For example, let’s say your employee does not use a password manager, and a hacker guesses their login credentials for their Amazon account. While this may not initially seem relevant, you may not realize that the employee has reused their Amazon account password for organizational accounts. If the hacker uses the same login credentials to access the employee’s organizational accounts, they could gain access to sensitive information and cause a data breach.

No oversight of employee password practices

Imagine you work in an organization that does not enforce the use of a password manager. Many employees might be using weak passwords or reusing the same password across multiple accounts. Additionally, they may be making security mistakes by storing passwords in insecure locations, such as a Google Sheet or even on sticky notes. Without a password manager, employees are not held accountable for poor password hygiene practices. Password managers provide oversight of your employees’ password practices by allowing you to see how many passwords an employee is reusing and how many are already compromised.

Password fatigue

If your organization requires your employees to use a strong, unique password for every account, they might experience password fatigue – exhaustion from how many passwords they need to remember. Employees who use many different apps, software or services might have to remember over 20 unique login credentials. Unless someone has a photographic memory, this is likely an impossible task without resorting to insecure methods of storing passwords or using a secure password manager. Your organization should require employees to use a password manager to prevent password fatigue, as it reduces the everyday stress of remembering and managing multiple passwords.

Increased risk of phishing

Without a password manager, your organization faces a higher risk of employees falling victim to phishing attacks. A password manager highlights any weak, reused or compromised passwords that employees can update, significantly increasing your organization’s security. A business password manager like Keeper^® includes a built-in password generator that produces random and strong passwords that your employees can use to update their accounts.

Compliance and regulatory issues

Password managers do more than just store login credentials; they ensure your organization complies with regulatory standards by offering a variety of enhanced security features. Your organization should use a password manager like Keeper that features AES 256-bit encryption, which is known as the most robust encryption available. Without a password manager, your organization risks non-compliance with data privacy regulations, as there would be no way to ensure employees follow strong password practices.

How a password manager protects your organization

A password manager can protect your organization by providing administrators with full visibility into your employees’ password habits, enforcing strong password practices, protecting your employees against spoofing attacks and meeting compliance requirements.

Provides admins complete visibility into employee password habits

Business password managers protect your organization by giving administrators full visibility and control over all employee password habits, including password strength, permissions and login credential sharing. A case study conducted by Keeper Security found that when an organization lacked proper password hygiene, administrators had no way to ensure password policies were being followed or that employees were using strong passwords to protect their accounts. Regarding the results and benefits of implementing a password manager for employees, the organization featured in the case study stated:

Before we deployed Keeper, I couldn’t be sure that all of my people were following our password policies because I couldn’t check. Now, I know for certain that they’re using strong, unique passwords because Keeper shows me what they’re doing.

Investing in a secure password manager for your organization provides peace of mind, knowing that employees will use strong, unique passwords for their accounts.

Supports the enforcement of secure password practices

Your organization will be better protected from data breaches and cyber threats by using a password manager because it supports secure password practices amongst your employees. A password manager simplifies the creation, management, storage and sharing of login credentials. With built-in password and passphrase generators, password managers produce strong passwords that employees can use to replace their weak or reused passwords. By storing passwords in digital vaults, employees enhance the security of their login credentials and better protect organizational data.

Protects employees against spoofed websites

Another benefit of password managers like Keeper is the ability to store the URL associated with a set of login credentials to verify that the website you intend to visit is legitimate. For example, if you want to save your Gmail login credentials, you can create a record and enter “www.gmail.com” into the record. This helps prevent phishing scams because, with an autofill feature, hackers cannot trick you with a spoofed website, which is a fake site designed to look legitimate and trick you into entering your login credentials. Without a password manager, your organization risks hackers more easily exploiting weak passwords or using spoofed websites to access sensitive information.

Alerts employees of breached credentials

Most password managers can alert employees if their credentials have been breached using a dark web monitoring tool. Dark web monitoring tools scan the dark web for specific personal information, like an employee’s email address, to determine if credentials have been compromised. Keeper’s business password manager offers an add-on feature called BreachWatch®, which constantly scans the dark web for login credentials stored in the Keeper Vault. If any passwords employees have stored in their vaults are exposed on the dark web, BreachWatch notifies you and allows you to take immediate action to protect your organization.

Helps meet regulatory compliance requirements

Your organization likely has regulatory compliance requirements to meet, and a password manager can assist in achieving these standards. For example, if you work in a healthcare organization, you should be HIPAA-compliant. A password manager like Keeper is a strong option for organizations that need to be HIPAA-compliant because it ensures password complexity, allows employees to store Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) methods and enables the setup and management of Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC).

What to look for in a business password manager

If your organization is looking for the best business password manager, ensure the password manager you select has these qualities:

• Strong encryption: Your business password manager should feature zero-trust security, zero-knowledge architecture and full end-to-end encryption to protect data both at rest and in transit. 
• Security audit and reporting: Business password managers should audit your organization’s password security by analyzing password strength, access controls and user behavior.
• Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC): Implement RBAC through a business password manager so that certain employees are assigned permissions based on their job roles instead of having access to all organizational resources.
• Passkey support: An ideal business password manager like Keeper supports passkeys, which are keys that make it easier to log in to accounts without entering your password. A business password manager that supports passkeys lets your employees manage them in their vaults to make the login process faster.
• Secure password and file sharing: It’s important that your business password manager allows you to securely share passwords and files within your organization. Employees using a business password manager will know their private information is stored securely while also being able to share passwords, data and files with authorized users.
• Dark web monitoring: An essential part of your business password manager should be its ability to monitor the dark web. This ensures that you and your employees are notified instantly if login credentials are exposed on the dark web, preventing compromised accounts and identity theft.
• 24/7 support: Make sure your business password manager offers customer support at all times, on any day of the week. Invest in a password management solution with well-trained support staff who can answer your questions promptly.

Minimize organizational risks and costs with Keeper^®

The consequences of not using a password manager are too damaging for your organization to ignore. By enforcing the use of a business password manager like Keeper for your employees, you will notice stronger password practices, less password fatigue and a reduced risk of phishing. A business password manager protects your organization from password-based cyber attacks by providing complete visibility into your employees’ password habits, alerting them to breached login credentials and meeting compliance standards.

Start your free 14-day trial of Keeper Business Password Manager to start reducing risks to your organization and improving your overall security.