Secure password sharing is essential for businesses that collaborate with external partners, yet many still rely on risky methods like emails and sticky notes. This article explores the dangers of insecure credential sharing, best practices for safeguarding passwords, and how tools like Passpack provide a seamless and secure way to manage access without compromising sensitive information.
In these days of specialization, most small- and medium-sized businesses offer a unique skill, product, or service. As a result, there is a growing need for SMBs to collaborate with external partners and contractors to supply the goods and services outside their area of expertise.
Let’s say you’re an event planner. You’re the expert at throwing big bashes. But you’re not a caterer, florist, deejay, or balloon artist. You also need to rent tables, chairs and linens, hire serving staff and book a photographer. For every event.
Or you’re a builder of master planned communities. You architect and sell the properties, but it takes an army of skilled craftsmen, electricians, plumbers and painters, plus multiple suppliers of lumber and bricks, windows and doors, flooring and roofing materials, cabinetry, etc. to construct the community.
At some point, those relationships must progress beyond phone calls and emails to enable efficient collaboration. That means sharing passwords with external partners to access online resources for scheduling, purchasing, estimating, billing, training, and any other “ing” where the businesses intersect. But there’s a way to go about it without exposing the businesses to cyberthreats.
Building Your Business Requires Secure Password Sharing
So, whether you’re an event planner, home builder, or any type of business that requires access to project-based talent, supplies, or services not available in-house, eventually your team will need to share passwords with external partners to collaborate effectively. Maybe it’s your business that is the subcontractor and it is you who is letting a client access your systems
Password sharing is a two-way street. Carelessness by either party can have devastating effects on both businesses. Insecure password sharing practices like exchanging them in unencrypted emails and texts, dictating them over the phone, or jotting them down on sticky notes opens a Pandora’s Box of threats including:
- Exposure to IT system breaches, denial of service (DoS) and ransomware attacks.
- Loss/theft of sensitive company and customer data.
- Unsanctioned access to other areas of company IT infrastructure.
- Compromised bank accounts and unauthorized financial transactions.
- Potential fines for non-compliance if personal data is leaked in a regulated industry.
- Loss of future business due to lack of trust by partners and customers after a breach becomes public.
These outcomes are typically associated with cybercriminals penetrating a business through phishing or social media attacks. But when you willingly provide external partners with company passwords, insecure sharing practices exposes your business to even greater risks. Consider:
- The lack of knowledge over who knows your passwords. You might trust the owner or president of a partner company, but do you know and trust everyone with whom they subsequently shared your passwords? Which leads to…
- The lack of control over your credentials. Nothing is stopping your partner(s) and their employees from further sharing, copying, leaking to the competition, or even changing your passwords. Which leads to…
- Unauthorized users having access to systems outside their designated roles and responsibilities. Which leads to…
- Difficulty in revoking permissions. Current and former employees of external partners may continue to access your online resources after the conclusion of a project. Which leads to…
- The absence of accountability and traceability. You’ll never know who is responsible in the event of a breach resulting in the exposure of sensitive data. Which leads to…
…all the same potential Pandora’s Box of consequences as a cybercriminal attack. Only in this case, you’ve removed the obstacle of a hacker having to crack a password.
Best Practices for Secure Password Sharing with External Partners
The answer is to get people in the habit of following strong cybersecurity practices to protect all partners in the supply chain. Secure password sharing is the foundation for safe external partner collaboration. But SMBs need to strike a balance between enabling collaboration and maintaining security. In other words, if the solution is too complex or disrupts workflows, employees will continue to use insecure password sharing methods. Minimize your risk with these best practices:
- Use a password manager application to create user identities and teams so that you know exactly who has access to which business credentials for accountability.
- Train employees and external partners how to use the password manager app efficiently and inform external partners of your company policies for secure password sharing.
- Choose a user-friendly password manager app that automates basic tasks and can be launched on any device.
- Educate your internal employees on the risks of insecure password sharing practices.
- Activate data encryption for secure password sharing instead of using plain text emails or messaging apps.
- Set up role-based access controls to limit permissions to only the necessary digital resources for each user.
- Regularly review and revoke or suspend access of external partners after project completion.
- Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) for additional security.
Passpack Simplifies Secure Password Sharing with External Partners
Passpack is the embodiment of these best practices and more. A secure vault for all credentials in use at a business, Passpack is affordable, simple to use, and a perfect match for SMBs that collaborate with external partners.
Infinitely scalable, Passpack supports an unlimited number of users, teams, and passwords. Administrators have 100% visibility into every password-related activity, eliminating lack of control. With Passpack, SMBs can now enforce consistent password creation, management and sharing policies inside and outside the organization to foster accountability and security. Passpack simplifies external partner collaboration with:
- End-to-end encrypted password sharing. All credential sharing messages are encrypted using military-grade AES 256-bit encryption to ensure data integrity when sharing passwords with external partners over a network connection.
- Role-based permissions. Limit the resources external partners can access by managing permissions based on job function or assignment. Set Read/Write or Read Only privileges for each user and control who can modify passwords.
- Random password generator. Ensure all new passwords meet minimum company standards with Admin-controlled thresholds for character string length and strength.
- Temporary access options. Grant time-limited access to freelancers, contractors and partners. Revoke access automatically at the end of a defined session, eliminating the need (and the risk of forgetting) to manually off-board users.
- Activity logs. Passpack captures a detailed history of everyone who accessed a shared password for ultimate accountability in the event of a breach.
- Domain access controls. Passpack offers controls for Verified Domains and Allowed Domains. Block users from sharing credentials with emails at specific web domains, such as a competitor.
- Seamless onboarding. Quickly add new external partners to the supply chain or add users to teams without impacting the productivity or changing the credentials of existing team members.
- Multi-factor authentication. Ensure external users really are who they say they are. Passpack supports MFA for an extra layer of security to verify user identity with a second piece of data.
- User-friendly and accessible. Passpack is simple to use and cloud-based, so users can access their passwords from anywhere using any device familiar to them.
So go ahead. Seamlessly exchange confidential data with external partners and grow your business without exposing it to unnecessary risk with Passpack.
Build a Secure Bridge with Passpack
Enforcing good password hygiene inside your own company is tough enough. Getting partner companies to fall in line only adds to the challenge. Passpack makes it easy to integrate external partners into your password management system.
Want proof? Try Passpack risk-free. Sign up for a no-obligation 28-day free trial of the Passpack Business Plan and see how Passpack can be your bridge to secure external collaboration.