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LogMeIn’s LastPass has unveiled a new survey of 300 IT professionals on solutions and strategies to secure critical systems and data.
LastPass, which provides password management options, surveyed 300 IT professionals from higher education institutions to determine emerging trends in the cyber security market.
The survey found that 88 per cent of institutions had experienced cyber breaches resulting from inadequate password protection. Meanwhile, 40 per cent of respondents outlined that they struggled to keep up with cyber breaches.
Thirty-two per cent of survey respondents commented that it has proven difficult to defend all potential entry points and exploitable loopholes.
The importance of protecting data in the education sector was reiterated recently with the cyber attack on the NSW Department of Education, and a suspected phishing attack on RMIT that caused the university to have an outage.
It was further revealed that Deakin University uncovered that staff were storing sensitive data on shared drives.
According to a release from LastPass, the survey findings evidenced the need for secure and encrypted password management services.
“A password manager can help solve these problems. Password management involves storing, securing, and managing credentials by following best practices including saving passwords in an encrypted, digital vault and never reusing a password to prevent unauthorised access to an organisation’s data,” a release from the company read.
After analysing the survey findings, Kim Milford, executive director of the Research and Education Networks Information Sharing and Analysis Centre, recommended that companies employ password protection practices.
“Password management solutions can complement institutional policies and identity management practices by improving user convenience, reducing the risks of password reuse and password sharing, and enhance the administration of account terminations and forgotten passwords,” Milford said.
LastPass provides management of passwords for 30 million users and 85,000 businesses across the world.
[Related: Deakin University onboards LogMeIn software]
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