How to share passwords safely in a small team

Every small team shares logins. The bank, the GST portal, the domain, social media, the courier account. The question is not whether you share them, but how.

Where passwords leak

• Chat messages. A password sent on WhatsApp stays in the chat, on every phone in the group, and in every backup of those phones.
• Spreadsheets. "Passwords.xlsx" gets emailed, downloaded and forgotten on old laptops.
• One password for everything. When one site is breached, every account with the same password is open.
• People who left. Former staff often still know the logins months later.

Five rules that fix most of it

1. Use a password manager with end-to-end encryption

A good password manager keeps each password locked with a key that only you and the people you share with hold. The company running it cannot read your passwords.

2. Share access, not the password

Share an item with a person or a small group. When their work changes, remove access in one place.

3. One strong, unique password per account

Let the manager generate them. Long and random beats clever and short.

4. Turn on two-step sign in everywhere it is offered

Start with email, banking, the GST portal and your domain registrar. A stolen password is far less useful without the second step.

5. Have a leaving checklist

When someone leaves, remove their access and change the passwords they could see. Do it the same day.

A quick audit you can do this week

1. List the ten accounts that would hurt most if someone else got in.
2. Check each one: unique password? two-step sign in on? who knows it?
3. Move them into a password manager and delete the old chat messages and files.

In Voro HQ

Voro Vault is our password manager, built into the same place you run your work. Everything is encrypted on your device before it is saved, so even we cannot read it. Share items with teammates, and take access back in one click.