Believe it or not, in this age, some people still haven’t learned their lesson when it comes to online safety. Numerous cybercriminals are still able to break into digital accounts because their clueless victims continue to use very weak or poor passwords.
Secure password management provider SplashData analyzed over 5 million passwords that have been leaked online globally this year to find out which ones are the most commonly shared among online criminals. Are you still using any or some of these worst and most unsecured passwords?
1. 123456
2. 123456789
3. Qwerty
4. Password
5. 1234567
6. 12345678
7. 12345
8. Iloveyou
9. 111111
10. 123123
11. abc123
12. qwerty123
13. 1q2w3e4rr
14. admin
15. qwertyuiop
16. 654321
17. 555555
18. lovely
19. 7777777
20. welcome
21. 888888
22. princess
23. dragon
24. password1
25. 123qwe
“People want to use passwords that are simple and easy to remember—for convenience,” said SplashData CEO Morgan Slain. “But they are really insecure, especially if you use them over and over again on different accounts.”
According to SplashData, up to 10% of all PC users worldwide use at least one of the 25 worst passwords in the 2019 list. Worse, about 3% use the worst password—123456.
It should also be noted that many people who use any of the worst passwords use those in not just one account. This is particularly riskier because it makes cyber hackers’ jobs much easier than they thought.
Tech and Lifestyle Journal now shares some practical tips on how to protect your online accounts aside of course from avoiding the use of any of the worst passwords identified in the list:
1. Create strong passwords—about 12 to 20 characters long. Refrain from using common phrases, movie titles, song titles, sports teams, or even your birthday. It would also help to use a unique combination of alphabet, non-alphabet characters, and numbers.
2. Use a unique password for every account. It may be confusing at times, but you may prevent that by recording your passwords in a secure note.
3. Use a password manager to create strong passwords for you.
4. Opt for a two-factor (or more) authentication in your online account. Some sites may require security questions for verification. In the Philippines, most online banking transactions are protected by one-time-password (OTP) authentications, wherein unique passwords are sent via SMS to be used when logging in aside from the account password.