-: Usernames and Passwords.
How do you log in to your computer
or your favorite website each day?
If you're like most people,
you're probably using a username and a password, right?
It is by far the most commonly used
authentication system out there.
Now most companies use a standard naming convention
for their usernames so you might see something like
first name.last name@yourcompany.com.
The problem with this
is it makes one part of that equation already known.
I already know that your username is first name.last name
and now all I need to do is figure out your password
to break into your system.
So for that reason,
we want to make sure we're using strong passwords.
I said this before but I'll say it again,
strong passwords contain uppercase letters,
lowercase letters, numbers, special characters,
and at least eight characters or more,
but I prefer 14 or more.
Now let's go over six key tips
for keeping your usernames and passwords
and your account secure.
Number one, always require the user
to change the default password
whenever the account is first created.
If the IT guy created the password and he said,
"Hey, your password is 12345678,"
you want to change it as soon as you get that account
to make sure only you know the password.
Number two, require that that password
is changed frequently, every 90 days.
You can do this by creating a global policy to enforce this.
I'm going to show you that in another lesson.
Number three, always change the default administrator
or root password.
By default in Windows,
they create a default administrator account.
You know what the password is?
Blank, it's nothing.
That is horrible for security.
So the first thing you should do is go in
and change that to a long strong password
and preferably disable that administrator account.
Number four, you want to disable the guest account
on your systems.
By default, Windows is going to install an account called guest
on your system.
You want to go into your user manager
and from here you can disable that account.
Number five, you want to enable Control + Alt + Delete
for logging into the system.
This is going to ensure that the user is communicating
with a trusted path to the operating system
in case there's any malware in it.
You've seen this when you go to your Windows 7
or your Windows 10.
Press Control + Alt + Delete to log in
and then it comes up and asks for your username or password.
To turn this feature on,
you go to the Advanced tab
of the User Accounts dialogue box.
You can also implement this across your entire domain
by using a good group policy.
Number six, use good, strong policies
in regards to your passwords.
Now this one is really, really important.
In fact, it's so important that I'm going to dedicate
the entire next video to take you into the lab environment
and walk you through step by step
how to set some important policy requirements
for your passwords like the length,
the age, the reuse, and the complexity.
We'll talk about that in the next lesson.