MBA1096 How to Manage All Your Passwords Securely

Hey. Oh. Welcome to the $100 MBA show. Feeding you bite sized valuable nuggets of business knowledge every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the $100 MBA, a complete business training and community online. And in today's episode you will learn how to manage all your passwords securely. If you run a business online or offline, you have a ton of passwords. Email marketing software, your email, your business email, your Slack password, your banking password, your email marketing software, all your software logins. If I tally up all the login information I have for all the different types of software and services we use, it's something like over 30. How do you manage it all? How do you make sure it's all secure so you're not using the same password for every single service? And how can you log into these services easily without having to type in your login information every single time? Well, in today's episode I'll be sharing with you what works for us, so you could do the same as well. Password security should be priority number one in your business. It's the keys to the castle. You want to make sure that nobody has access to that shouldn't have access because if they do, it could be huge headaches for you and your business. Let's avoid all those headaches. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Today's episode is supported by Cronos. No one compliments you when their paycheck is correct. But make one mistake and you risk alienating your entire workforce. Cronos makes sure that your payroll is done right the first time. From punch to paycheck, embedded checklists, simplified workflows, a single source of truth. Hr, payroll talent and timekeeping in one unified system. All with a proven implementation approach and simplified transparent pricing. Learn more@kronos.com payroll that's K-R-O-N O S.com payroll Kronos Workforce innovation that works. Your passwords need to be guarded more than anything else in your life. More than your actual front door of your house. What's behind your passwords are probably more valuable than what's in your actual home. Like access to your business, access to your bank, access to your accounting software, access to files that really have important information. It's how to make sure your passwords are secure. They're not easily replicated, but at the same time not inconvenient for you. To log in with them every time you need to log in. Well, I'm going to share with you what works for us. I'm not a security expert, so use our advice with that in mind. But what I'm sharing with you today is what I've learned through experience as well as what I've read and consulted with some really top experts in cybersecurity. One in particular, I know John, who worked for the FBI. So let's get into it. Number one, you should never, never, never make any of your passwords something that somebody can just figure out, like a birthday, like your name, like the names of anybody you know, like your anniversary, like anything that can easily be found out by anybody that knows you, or a piece of information that you would provide in some other form or some other format. This is how hackers kind of get into your passwords. They get one piece of information somewhere else and use it to crack into your password. So they might find out your birthday from a form you filled out and try different options or versions of your birthday as a password. And hackers these days are sophisticated. They have automated systems that will try different types of variations with your name, with the name of your spouse, with the name of your kids, with the name of anything that they have. So do not use anything that's personal. Number two, do not use the same password twice, meaning do not make your passwords the same for all your different logins. And that leads me to number three, Use a random password generator. That means don't think up your own passwords. There is a site called Password Generator, and this website will generate passwords for you. You can choose the number of characters. I recommend 20. And you can include capitals, symbols, numbers, and it will generate this random password for you. Now, I know you're thinking, but, Omar, how am I going to remember this random, strange password with all these characters in it? Don't worry, I got your back. I'll tell you how in a sec. But right now you got to use a random password generator. So use a random password generator to create all your passwords for all your logins. Now you're saying, how am I going to remember this? Well, you need a tool which is like a bank for all your passwords. The tool we recommend is LastPass. LastPass is basically exactly what I said, a bank for all your passwords. It's a place to store all your passwords and all your logins. And basically, it's an app on your phone or a website you log into where you can save, you know, the email and the password for all your logins for every single website or app that you have. Better yet, when you go to those websites, it will allow you to enter your password securely, automatically, so you don't have to actually type it in and remember the password. You just have to install either the app on your phone or install the Chrome extension. So that way it generates in those fields. So you'll have this bank of passwords, LastPass, but you have to have access or log into LastPass, so it's activated. Now, you don't do this all the time. You don't do it that often actually on your phone, unless you update the app or you have a new phone on the computer. It's whenever you actually shut down or close the browser. So all your accounts have random passwords and they're saved in LastPass. Now, you need a password for LastPass. That kind of is your key to all the keys. Now, LastPass is super secure, but just to be super safe, you're going to actually use a new password for LastPass every month. So you can reset your password and you can set a calendar reminder to do this. Now, how are you going to create a password for LastPass? Well, we're going to do it in a secure way that's not easy to replicate. You're going to think of your favorite song and no, you're not going to use the name of the song as your password. You're going to use the first lines of that song. It's a phrase. And often songs will have a phrase that is not very common. I'll give you an example. Let's say, for example, your favorite song is Thriller by Michael Jackson. And the first line of that song is it's close to midnight. So I would use it's close to midnight as my phrase. And I would use some extra stuff here to make it more secure. I would capitalize every other word in that phrase. So the I and its the T and 2. I would also put a character in between each word, like an exclamation mark or an at sign or a percentage sign. And that will really strengthen the actual password. So it ends up being like 21 characters. This is not personal. This is not somebody's name. You would not write it's close to midnight on any other form or any other place somebody can get that information. Only you know the song and the first line of that song. And then after a month, I choose a different song and that becomes my password, that first phrase for that password. Now, of course, this is not my password. So don't try to hack me. I'm trying to teach you a lesson here. So stay away from my accounts. I'm just kidding. Of course you guys wouldn't do that. But the reason why I'm explaining this to you is so you have a strategy to make sure your passwords are all secure. I got more on today's topic, but before that, let me give love to today's sponsor. Support for today's show comes from Adroll. Whether you're a startup or have a thousand employees, what matters is creating sustainable growth. That's why over 37,000 brands use AdRoll to find more shoppers, make more sales and and grow their business online. Adroll takes care of the nuts and bolts of digital marketing so businesses like Teepublic have more time, less stress, and huge growth. Teepublic made a huge investment in digital advertising for the holiday season, and Adam Lasky, head of marketing for the retail brand, knew that this would be a make or break moment for him. With Adroll's help, Teepublic's holiday campaign beat Adam's sales targets by double delivering massive revenue and giving him the confidence to tackle more ambitious goals. It's no surprise that adroll customers make 246 billion worth of sales every year. Make sure you invest your marketing dollars with a proven partner. To see how brands like Teepublic invest smarter and grow faster with AdRoll, visit adroll.com NBA that's A-R-O-L l.com MBA a couple pieces of advice when it comes to your actual hardware, like your phone or your actual computer. Especially your phone, because we often change our phone every year or two. Make sure before you give it to somebody or sell it that you clean the phone. You want to restore to factory settings on your phone because, hey, I know it might be your brother or your sister. And it doesn't matter if you're giving your phone to your brother, your sister, or somebody you really trust, they may not be as diligent with their phone. They may have it unlocked and somebody can see passwords, can see logins. If it's possible, it can happen. There's a chance. So make sure you put safety first when it comes to your passwords. Restore your phone to factory settings before you give it up. Same thing with your computer. Back it up, back up your computer. And the same thing with your phone. By the way, you can back up your phone. I know with iPhone you can do it through itunes, but back up your computer so you have all the files you need. But often our computer will save our passwords if we ask it to save it. So you want to format your computer and again, restore it to factory settings. If you don't know how to do this, there's tutorials online. You could take it to the store you bought it from. I know Apple is very helpful with this. You go to the Genius Bar and say, hey, I'm selling this computer. I want to format it. Make sure it has none of my information. I've done a backup, and they could do it for you, show you how to do it, actually. Next is paperwork. Make sure that if you're not going paperless with any of your bills or mail, then you have a shredder. And some people are really diligent. They use a black Sharpie and they black out the whole page before they shred it. People, too. But dumpster dive and get information. Again, you want to be as secure as possible. I know this sounds like. Hey, you're being a little bit paranoid here, Omar. No, no, no. You're never gonna be too safe. And again, these are the keys to the castle and the keys to your business. So make sure you're safe. All right? I hope today's episode was helpful. I hope that you take on some of these strategies, and I hope to see you in tomorrow's episode. But before. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. When it comes to passwords, when it comes to security, don't get lazy. Create those generated passwords. Use a tool that helps you manage all your passwords. And be safe with your devices. If you've ever been hacked, ever been breached, ever had your identity stolen, you know how horrible it is. You know how much time it takes to restore everything. You know how much of a setback that is. So pay the price right now and prepare yourself and be safe. It's a small price right now than actually paying a big price later on. All right, I'll check you in. Tomorrow's episode. Freeride Friday. I'll see you then. Take care.