Compliance with industry regulations are extremely important to IT priorities, and cybersecurity. One of the more prominent standards for safeguarding personal data is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which provides guidelines for organizations dealing with protected health information (PHI). For sysadmins, compliance with HIPAA requires visibility and technical controls to protect electronic personal health... Read More
Specops Software Blog
What is NIST guidance on password managers?
Today’s end-users are juggling many sets of credentials for accessing critical business resources. To prevent users from writing-down, reusing, or selecting weak but memorable passwords, businesses are turning to password managers. A password manager is an encrypted database used for storing, retrieving, and generating passwords. Enterprise password managers not only improve password security, but also simplify password management... Read More
Specops Software Survey: 48% of Businesses Do not Use a User Verification Policy for Password Reset Calls to IT Service Desks
Specops Software survey highlights social engineering vulnerabilities among IT service help desks. 48% of organizations do not have a user verification policy in place for incoming calls to IT service desks, according to Specops Software, the leading provider of password management and authentication solutions. The information was uncovered as part of Specops Software’s survey of more than 200 IT leaders from the private and public sectors... Read More
Introducing Dynamic Feedback at Password Change
Specops Software announced today the latest release of Specops Password Policy, 7.6, and the Specops Authentication Client, 7.15. This release introduces many new features, including dynamic feedback for end users at password change. With this release, users will now see feedback on the new passwords they choose at... Read More
Specops partners with Duo Security to secure password resets
Partnership enables customers to improve security and eliminate barriers to end-user adoption. Specops Software announced that it is now a Duo Security Technology Partner. The technology partnership demonstrates a commitment to provide customers with solutions that can uplift security,... Read More
How to check if an AD account is locked out
The Account Lockout Policy in Active Directory Group Policy sets the number of failed sign-in attempts before a user account is locked out. Once the account is locked out, it cannot be used (even with the correct password) until... Read More
The Force won’t save you from these breached passwords #StarWarsDay
If your colleagues are Star Wars fans, they might be at risk for breached password use. On May the 4th, the unofficial Star Wars fandom holiday, Specops Software investigated which Star Wars themed passwords were most popular in breached... Read More
All About Password Entropy
This article takes a look at the Password Entropy calculation in Specops Password Auditor. What is entropy? Entropy is a concept borrowed from information theory. In the password context, entropy can be summarized as: how many guesses would it... Read More
And the Award for Most Popular Movie Used in Passwords Goes to…
A couple of weeks ago, we revealed the top Major League Baseball team names that are a homerun for hackers in conjunction with Opening Day. With the Oscars just around the corner, we’re refreshing our list to share the... Read More
HIPAA Security Rule Guidance for passwords
There are an alarming number of cyberattacks targeting the healthcare industry. In October 2020, the FBI released a security warning to hospitals and government agencies of an imminent danger of ransomware attacks. Attackers were said to be targeting healthcare... Read More