Stop Intellectual Property Leaks: 5 Reasons Why Passwords Fail to Protect

Intellectual property theft drains companies of billions each year, with cybercriminals nabbing over $600 billion worth of intellectual property in 2021. Companies have long trusted passwords to guard their sensitive info, but the flaws in password-security are now clear. Businesses need to see the weak spots in this old-school method and look into stronger secure board portal options to cut down on risks.

Why Password-Security Falls Short

Even with better cybersecurity many companies still use passwords as their main way to protect data. But this method has many weak spots that could let people steal secret information important business ideas. Companies that want to make their security stronger and keep their most important stuff safe need to know why passwords aren’t enough.

1. Hackers and Scammers Can Easily Crack Passwords

One of the main worries about using only passwords for security is how easy they are to hack and phish. Hackers often try to guess or steal passwords through brute force tricking people, or other methods. Even complex passwords can be at risk if an employee falls for a fake email giving criminals direct access to important data. A Verizon study shows that phishing attacks cause 22% of data breaches worldwide, which shows how weak password-security can be.

2. Sharing Passwords Increased the Chances of Unauthorized Access

To ease their work from home routine, employees tend to share their passwords with one another. Although this behavior appears to be acceptable, it can lead to disastrous consequences. Password sharing, for example, gives everyone access to critical documents. It then becomes impossible to determine who accessed what, making it difficult to hold people accountable. This also increases the risk of leakage of sensitive information belonging to the company.

3. Weak Passwords are the Best Invitation to Hackers

The problem of weak passwords is common among many companies. Although there are policies in place for the workers to create strong passwords, too many individuals choose to use simple words or combinations that are easy to guess. Companies are therefore exposed as easy access passwords can easily be broken. Hackers can use software application or simply keep trying until they get the correct combination.

4. Individual Passwords Are Inadequate for Secure Access

Passwords are merely a basic method of access restriction from a security standpoint. A password by itself is not enough when numerous people need varying degrees of access to sensitive documents. Secure board portals offer role-based access restrictions, which are perfect for this use case since they allow these organizations to restrict specific permissions according to the role or clearance level of the user. In this manner, it may be guaranteed that the specific files can only be seen, altered, or shared by those who are permitted.

5. Absence of a Record of Activities is a Major Challenge in Accountability of Users

Systems that use passwords don’t often provide detailed records of activities, which makes it hard to keep tabs on what users do in a digital space. This lack of insight causes problems when you need to find out where a security breach or unauthorized action came from. On the flip side, secure digital solutions that have complete activity logs let managers see who looked at what information and when, which boosts accountability.

Conclusion

As cyber threats get more complex, companies can’t just rely on passwords anymore. Password-systems have big problems—they’re easy to hack, don’t control access well, and don’t track who does what. This makes them a bad choice to protect important ideas. Using secure board portal options fixes these issues and adds better security like multi-step login coded messages, and logs of who accessed what. When companies take action early, they can cut down on the chance of important ideas leaking out and keep their valuable stuff safer.