The costs and implications of a data breach can be devastating for a medical practice. Therefore, you should work to keep your practice both up-to-date and educated on cyber security, including passwords.

Posted in Risk Management on Thursday, August 11, 2016

With medical practices storing an increased amount of protected health information online, it is important that your practice understands cyber security, including passwords and passphrases.

To help protect the data at your medical practice, as well as the costs and implications that a data breach can have for your practice, reputation and professional license, consider these password and passphrase tips from Microsoft and Krebs on Security:

Password Tips

1. A strong password contains: at least 8 characters, uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols
2. Passwords should not contain your user name, real name or company name
3. Passwords should not be the name of your children, pet or spouse
4. Avoid using adjacent keyboard combinations such as “qwerty” or “123456”
5. Update passwords regularly and make sure that your new passwords are different from previous ones

Passphrase Tips

1. A passphrase is typically a phrase that is 20 to 30 characters in length
2. Passphrases should not contain your user name, real name or company name
3. Passphrases should not contain common literature or music phrases
4. Update passphrases regularly and make sure that your new passphrases are different from previous ones

Tips for Remembering Passwords and Passphrases

1. Create an acronym for easy to remember information
2. If you write down your password or passphrase, do not keep it in plain sight or on your computer