James Lane

If you work for an organisation where someone else has some influence over the security of your account, you may be subject to a policy of password expiry. Every 30, 60 or 90 days, you receive a prompt that advises you to change your password - if you ignore it, the prompts get increasingly more aggressive - until one day you log in and you're forced to enter a new password to continue. Proactive account security is something I absolutely champion - but not like this. What's wrong with forcing regular password expiry? Passwords are a weak point of security, always have been - and until we rethink our approach to account security, probably always will be. But forced expiry has a similar effect on security as abstinence has on sex education. It looks like an idea that should be good, but it doesn't address the underlying issues. The weak link in this chain is us; users. We're told that we have to have at least 8 characters, at least one of those must be upper case, at lea...

Keeping your personal digital data and business, safe is (or, should be) really at the top of your priority list. I am always shocked when (and I promise you, this has happened) people get up from their seat on a train or at a coffee shop and not only leave their laptop behind (WTF!) as they head off to the bathroom, but they leave the device open and unlocked as well! If this is you, you need to stop. Typing Laptop GIF from Typing GIFs Anyone could sit down in front of that machine, and see all sorts of information, access your social media, forward emails and just generally cause mayhem. I probably don't need to point out why this is such a big deal, but GDPR jumps immediately to my mind. You should lock your laptop every time you walk away from it It's really a good practise to get into. Even when you think it's safe - start getting into the habit - when you get up at home to use the toilet, lock your laptop. When you're in a meeting with colleagues and y...

Two-factor authentication, or 2FA, is a type of multi-layer security that uses something you know (for example, your password) combined with something you have (for example, your phone) to let you into a system. The reason it's such a useful process is that it can bolster the security that a password alone can achieve. Which is not to say that you can have a rubbish password - but, it can help make your all-important information and accounts. If you're interested in learning more about password management in addition to 2FA, check out our LastPass article . Normal account security The majority of accounts you have will likely have a username (perhaps something you've chosen, or your email address) and a password (something you should have memorised and definitely shouldn't be anything like Password123). This level of protection is ok, but it's probably not enough anymore. As we live in an ever more connected world, if one of your accounts were to become compromised,...