How to convince your business to invest in a password management solution

I've been using a password manager for years. It started one fateful day after having an account hacked and realized I'd been using the same password for every service I use. Before that, I had the same assumption most people do… "This won't happen to me." Well, it did and it only took that one time for me to change my approach to passwords.

It took a little time to shift my online login habits to using a password manager. Years later, I cannot imagine not using a password manager to help ensure I'm not only using strong passwords, but to keep me apprised of breaches and help me safely share vault entries with others.

But what happens when it comes time to convince your team or company to adopt a password management solution? You might find yourself up against a challenge, but if you go into that first meeting ready with a few important points, you'll have a much easier time making the case. Let's take a look at a few of the more important bullet points you can carry into that meeting.

One of the most important points to bring up to management is that hacking breaches are typically caused by weak, stolen, or reused passwords. On top of that, reused passwords cross the boundary between personal and work. When employees use passwords like password or 123456 for their personal accounts, what's stopping them from doing the same for business accounts? When your IT staff has complete control over password policies, that's easy to avoid, but when those accounts are outside the purview of IT, it's not so easy. If those employees are using a password manager to create strong, random passwords, and admins can keep track of who is creating and using the password manager, the risks are dramatically reduced.

Once upon a time, it was a safe bet that only big brands were under attack. That's no longer the case. Even small and mid-sized businesses have become targets of hackers. Why? It may not be an attempt to steal your data but a means to access an even bigger target. Hackers might attempt to access an enterprise company by way of an API access point used by your company. If your developers are using weak passwords for those access points, hackers won't have much trouble making the jump. To safeguard against these attacks and set your team up for success, your business should be using a password manager.

It's pretty simple - the benefit of locking down services and accounts with strong passwords goes a long way to prevent breaches. But it doesn't stop there. A password manager can help with:

• Eliminating reused passwords

• Secure sharing of vault entries

• Ensuring employees don’t leave the company with sensitive information that can be used against you

• Cutting down on IT staff spending valuable time resetting passwords because employees forgot them

Before you approach management about your idea, you should develop a strong rollout plan. Have all of the details, including which password managers are best suited for your company, how the password manager will help staff securely share sensitive information, how and where the software will be installed, and the cost of the plan.

Along those same lines, you might want to prepare a small group of employees to serve as a test case. Management will likely be more amenable to testing a password manager for a small cross-section of employees so they can see the benefits. When you go into that meeting to pitch the plan, know exactly which employees would be best suited for the test, how it will benefit them, and how the plan will be expanded when the test succeeds.

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