Password: A Word That Carries Great Responsibility

Imagine that the key to your neighbor's apartment also opens the door to your own home and the doors of all the other residents in the building. At the same time, this key is accessible to everyone. How does that sound to you? From the perspective of the digital world, that “key” can instantly open all the doors to your data—without knocking. What follows is chaos that is usually impossible for anyone to clean up.

Does a password like “12345” or even the word “password” give you a sense of security when you're creating an account somewhere? It may seem harmless to many, but one weak password can trigger an avalanche of consequences—from the theft of personal data to the complete collapse of a company's entire system security. And in the business world, this can often mean losing your job.

In reality, passwords protect our bank accounts, access to work systems, and private data. The problem is that we often don't think about them until it's too late.

What is the Role of Standards?

The international standard SRPS ISO/IEC 27002:2022, Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection - Information security controls (ISO/IEC 27002:2022), provides clear rules: passwords should be complex, unique, securely shared, and regularly updated. Users are responsible for keeping them secret, changing them immediately if they suspect they've been compromised, and avoiding the reuse of old combinations.

For industrial systems, the series of standards SRPS EN IEC 62443, Security for industrial automation and control systems, raises the bar even higher—it imposes a more advanced level of security and stricter rules for passwords.

Strong Password = Secure System = Peaceful Sleep.

One of the golden rules is: everyone should only have access to what is necessary for their job. It sounds trivial, but when the time comes, not even the best IT team can protect you if you choose combinations like those at the beginning of this article.

That's why it's important to follow the rule for long-term security: a strong password equals a secure system, which equals a peaceful sleep.

Source:https://www.iec.ch/blog/why-password-management-crucial-cyber-security