UK businesses must adopt longer passwords to tackle rise in Russian cyber-attacks, expert warns

Steve Allan, CEO and founder of Linten Technologies, has warned that it is imperative firms act now by strengthening their passwords as the number of cyber security breaches in businesses continues to rise.

“There is a real danger that UK businesses won’t be ready for what could have a devastating impact on their operations,” he said.

“Passwords are undoubtedly the cyber security gatekeepers for most firms. It is vital that these are robust so, if an attack happens, they effectively act as a first line of defence before hackers gain access.

“Research has shown that by simply adding one extra letter, digit or symbol to a password can make all the difference.

“Typically, a 10-character password can take hackers just 26 minutes to break, whereas a password with 11 characters can take about three days.”

The warning follows a series of high-profile attacks by pro-Russian hackers on the FBI website and Australian private health insurer Medibank in recent weeks.

Government’s annual Cyber Security Breaches Survey shows a 31 per cent of businesses and 26 per cent of charities identified a cyber-attack at least once every week - an increase from 27 per cent of businesses and 23 per cent of charities in the previous year.