How to Manage Secure Hospital Social Media Passwords
Last month, the headlines about the latest large-scale Twitter account hacking was exactly the kind of news that frightens many—especially skittish hospital executives and stakeholders—from engaging with social media for their hospital or healthcare system.
How well do you manage the keys—passwords—to your hospitals’ online security, such as with your social media accounts?
After all, if one person can’t protect his or her personal accounts, how can a hospital be expected to have multiple social media users and accounts without exponentially increasing their risk for being hacked?
Use Multiple, Secure Passwords
The most common mistake people make with passwords—especially when they are sharing those passwords—is that they want them easy to share and remember. For instance, they do things like create passwords that are just the hospital’s name—or they try to get crafty by adding “123” to that name. Worse, they’ll use that password for multiple accounts.
Remember, the easier a password is to remember or share, the easier it is to hack. That is why you want a password that is not only challenging to remember, but a password that doesn’t even resemble a word.
It’s very easy to make a secure password that will deflect hackers: Just Google “password generator” and you’ll discover dozens of Websites that will automatically generate random, unique and secure passwords for you.
Aim for passwords that use combinations of letters and numbers, especially since most social media passwords don’t recognize non-alphanumeric characters.
Change Passwords Regularly
The longer you use a password, the more likely is can be hacked.
Don’t wait for your password to get stale; update it as frequently as you need to be comfortable. Just make sure that everybody that uses the password is aware of your schedule!
Know Who Has the Passwords
There are countless reasons for why this is important, starting with knowing whom to advise if you regularly change—or have the occasion to abruptly change—your password.
Likewise, if an authorized user should happen to stop working at your hospital—or for any other reason why they are no longer authorized the account—you’ll not only need to change your password, but also need to know whom to update.
Educate Your Administrators
Finally, for dispersed authorship accounts such as a WordPress blog or CMS that enables multiple authors with their own login information, remember that like a chain, your security is only as strong as its weakest link.
That means your security is largely based on the strength of your weakest password. Therefore, it’s critical that you educate you administrators about the value of using smart and secure password management tactics.
Have you ever been hacked? What is for a personal or professional account? How do you manage your hospitals’ logins and passwords?
