Passwords are supposed to be private. It gets reiterated to you whenever you sign up to a new account. Add in the secret questions and what not when you aren’t sure of your password and it becomes a nightmare trying to remember it all.
A lot of business people also outsource their work to other people like their Executive Assistant, Personal Assistant or Virtual Assistant, requiring them to hand over their passwords to someone other than themselves.
So what advice can be offered if I need to share passwords?
Some of these I touched on previously, but that was more focusing on choosing the right method of picking a password.
Firstly, since passwords shouldn’t be openly shared with people, ensure that the person you will be sharing them to will keep them private. Don’t be afraid to ask how they will store it.
A lot of Virtual Assistants and Web Administrators look at apps such as https://lastpass.com/ and https://agilebits.com/onepassword to house their clients’ passwords. These apps offer a safe, secure way of being able to retrieve whatever password they need.
Secondly, work out a system with them to create new passwords that will be easy to follow if they need to open up an account for you. It could be as easy as use this password for all new accounts; or make up a password based on this thing.
Thirdly, make sure that if they ever stop working for you, that you change all passwords that they had access to as soon as reasonably able. Doubly fast if the reason they ended their work with you was for reasons that weren’t mutual.
Lastly, remember to update passwords semi regularly and let those who need to know them know. I know some people in Australia use daylight savings ending and beginning as their indicator that they should change passwords (like smoke detector batteries). Usually though I would look at at least once every year, more if you suspect that someone might have gained access to your passwords without you knowing.
Overall, regardless of what you do with your passwords, you are responsible for the safe keeping of them. If something fraudulent happens to an account, it is you who is at risk of suspension or termination. Trust the staff you have, but within reason.
