Key takeaways in 30 seconds
- A reused password across several services is a major risk — if one service is hacked, all your accounts are
- A password manager (Bitwarden, 1Password) solves 90% of account security problems
- Two-factor authentication (2FA) is the second most important lock — turn it on everywhere
- Phishing attacks target your business accounts first (email, CRM, bank, suppliers)
The reality of account compromises in 2026
In 2023, the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report estimated that 80% of data breaches involve stolen or weak passwords. This is not about sophisticated hackers in dark basements — it is often much simpler.
An employee uses the same password for their work email and an online forum. That forum gets hacked. The database is sold on the dark web. A bot tests those credentials against your bank, your host, your CRM.
This scenario repeats millions of times a month. And the target can be any business.
The most common dangerous practices
- Reusing the same password across services (or slight variants: "Password1", "Password2")
- Using personal information: date of birth, a child's name, the company name
- Storing passwords in an Excel file or a sticky note on the desk
- Sharing passwords by email or WhatsApp with colleagues
- Not changing a password after an employee leaves
The solution: a password manager
A password manager generates, stores and auto-fills unique, complex passwords for every service. You only need to remember one master password.
Recommended options:
- Bitwarden — open source, free for the essentials, team version available
- 1Password — excellent for teams, with a built-in security audit
- Dashlane — intuitive interface, good for the less tech-savvy
Concrete benefits:
- 20+ character passwords generated automatically
- A unique password per service — a breach only affects one account
- Secure sharing with colleagues without sending the password in plain text
- Alerts when one of your services suffers a data leak
Two-factor authentication (2FA)
2FA adds a second check on top of the password: a temporary code sent by SMS, generated by an app, or via a physical key.
Even if your password is compromised, the attacker cannot access your account without that second factor.
Turn on 2FA first on:
- Your business email (Gmail, Outlook)
- Your host and your domain registrar
- Your bank account and payment tools (Stripe, PayPal)
- Your CRM and customer tools
- Your professional social media accounts
Recommended 2FA apps: Google Authenticator, Authy (allows backup), Microsoft Authenticator.
Best practices for a team
If you have colleagues, account security becomes a collective matter:
- Use a team manager (1Password Teams, Bitwarden Business) — access is centralized and revocable
- Offboarding protocol: whenever an employee leaves, immediately change the passwords of the shared accounts they had access to
- Named accounts: avoid shared generic "contact@" or "admin" accounts — create individual accounts with appropriate rights
- Quarterly audit: check who has access to what, and revoke unnecessary access
The basic test to do now
Go to haveibeenpwned.com and enter your business email address. This service indexes stolen databases and tells you if your email was compromised in a known leak.
If it was — and for many addresses active for several years, it was — immediately change the passwords of every service tied to that address and enable 2FA everywhere.
Tools like AeviaSecurity can also audit your domain's overall security, including checking your email records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) that protect your domain against spoofing.