Time To Update Your Passwords

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ADAPTISTRATION-GUY-096It’s been more than a year since the last reminder which means it is high time to remind everyone to update your passwords, especially ones related to work at your arts org. Hacker activity hasn’t subsided since a big spike at the beginning of the calendar year and one of the most useful steps in shutting down hackers before they get anywhere is using a strong password. Yes, strong passwords are a pain in the ass to remember and it is so much easier to pick something easy and burry your head in the sand, but you aren’t doing yourself any favors.

We’ve covered this topic in the past via a pair of useful articles and the advice there is entirely relevant, especially the material related to password managers.

Read. Both. Articles.

The last thing anyone wants is to be the person responsible for getting your entire office network blacklisted by major hosts and ISPs because they discovered one or more computers in your office were compromised by a brute-force attack thanks to your “MahlerRox2!” password.

[ilink url=”https://adaptistration.com/blog/2013/01/25/eliminate-password-fail-time-suck-once-and-for-all/”]Password management made easy.[/ilink]

[ilink url=”https://adaptistration.com/blog/2012/06/04/change-your-password-already/”]How to create a strong password.[/ilink]

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

View all posts by Drew McManus | Website

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2 thoughts on “Time To Update Your Passwords”

    • I wholeheartedly agree, another very useful feature if you do any sort of IT work is the ability to share passwords with other lastpass users. It’s a great way to help keep clients/co-workers, etc. using strong passwords without the hassle of them having to give you the p/w whenever troubleshooting needs to occur etc.

      For development work, it’s great; I can set any one of my programmers up with a admin user account at a Venture install and send them the login creds without needing to contact them. As a result, they are able to login in right away without having to ask for the credentials. It makes a remote working structure that much easier to maintain.

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