New Nis2 Compliance: How To Get Passwords And Mfa Right 2025
The EU's NIS2 Directive is pushing organizations to take cybersecurity seriously, and that means looking closely at how you manage access. If you're responsible for security in a company that falls under NIS2, you're probably asking: what exactly do I need to do about passwords and authentication?
Let's break down what NIS2 means for your identity and access controls, and how to build a practical roadmap that actually works.
NIS2 (the Network and Information Security Directive) replaced the original NIS Directive in January 2023, and EU member states were required to transpose it into national law by October 2024. The directive applies to medium and large organizations across 18 critical sectors, including energy, transport, banking, healthcare, digital infrastructure, and public administration.
If your organization has 50+ employees or annual revenue exceeding €10 million in these sectors, you likely need to comply. The penalties for non-compliance are steep: essential entities face fines up to €10 million or 2% of global annual turnover, while important entities face up to €7 million or 1.4% of turnover.
Both categories must meet the same cybersecurity requirements. The difference lies in supervision intensity and penalty levels.
Verizon’s Data Breach Investigation Report found stolen credentials are involved in 44.7% of breaches. Effortlessly secure Active Directory with compliant password policies, blocking 4+ billion compromised passwords, boosting security, and slashing support hassles!
NIS2 explicitly calls out identity and access management as a core security measure. Article 21 requires organizations to implement policies on access control, making it clear that weak authentication is no longer acceptable.
This makes sense when you consider the threat landscape. According to the 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, compromised credentials were involved in 80% of breaches. If attackers can walk through the front door with stolen passwords, your other security measures don't matter much.
Strong password policy is your first line of defense, but what does "strong" actually mean as we move into 2026?
The old model of forcing users to create "P@ssw0rd123!" is outdated. NIST guidelines now recommend prioritizing length over complexity. A 15-character passphrase such as "coffee-mountain-bicycle-sky" is both more secure and easier to remember than "Tr0ub4dor&3."
Source: BleepingComputer
