• News
    • Tech News
    • AI
  • Gadgets
    • Apple
    • iPhone
  • Gaming
    • Playstation
    • Xbox
  • Science
    • News
    • Space
  • Streaming
    • Netflix
  • Vehicles
    • Car News
  • Social Media
    • WhatsApp
    • YouTube
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
TikTok
Snapchat
WhatsApp
Submit Your Content
A shocking number of passwords can be hacked in a minute and yours could be one of them

Home> News

Published 15:39 26 Jun 2024 GMT+1

A shocking number of passwords can be hacked in a minute and yours could be one of them

Hackers could guess nearly half of them in just 60 seconds.

Rebekah Jordan

Rebekah Jordan

Creating a password can be a hassle. You need it to be random but not so random that you'll forget it.

Sometimes, it feels easier to use the same password for everything. But this could put you at serious risk of hacking - especially if it's easy to crack.

Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky analysed 193 million passwords and found that 45% of passwords could be guessed by scammers within a minute.

Advert

That's right, a mere 60 seconds to get access to your data.

And another 14% could be cracked within the hour, which is still a large majority of passwords.

Only 4% took from one month to a year to break and 23% took more than a year to hack. The latter are considered to be hacker-resistant.

Chainarong Prasertthai/Getty
Chainarong Prasertthai/Getty

Advert

In 2023, cybercriminals made more than 32 million attempts to identify personal passwords.

With that number growing, it could only be a matter of time until your account is at risk.

So what makes a password easy to guess and how can we make sure they are secure in the future?

Alongside the most obvious culprits, like ‘password’ and ‘123456’, the majority of passwords examined contained a word from the dictionary, which reduces the password’s overall strength.

Advert

Another common mistake is using easily identifiable names, such as ‘Ahmed’, ‘Nguyen’, ‘Kumar’, ‘Kevin’ and ‘Daniel’.

Many people tend to choose passwords based on things relevant to their life such as pet names, family members and birthdays - all of which make them easier to crack.

The cybersecurity team pointed out that the most popular words used in passwords include ‘forever’, ‘love’, ‘google’, ‘hacker’ and ‘gamer’.

d3sign/Getty
d3sign/Getty

Advert

Other standard - and very obvious - passwords involved ‘password’, ‘qwerty12345’, ‘admin’, ‘12345’ and ‘team’.

Yuliya Novikova, Kaspersky’s head of digital footprint intelligence, said: ‘Unconsciously, human beings create “human” passwords – containing the words from the dictionary in their native languages, featuring names and numbers etc.

‘Even seemingly strong combinations are rarely completely random, so they can be guessed by algorithms.'

The best solution is to use password managers to generate completely random passwords and store them in a secure place.

Advert

‘Such apps can securely store large volumes of data, providing comprehensive and robust protection for user information,' she added.

Furthermore, adding numbers or a couple of capital letters and symbols such as £,$,@, or ! will help make passwords much harder to guess.

The more random, the better.

As an extra step of security, users should enable two-factor authentication which requires two forms of identification to access an account.

Featured Image Credit: Chainarong Prasertthai/d3sign/Getty
Cybersecurity
Laptops
Tech News

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

9 hours ago
  • 9 hours ago

    Android and iPhone users put on red alert following rise in quishing attacks costing people millions each year

    You could be at risk of cyberattacks

    News
  • 9 hours ago

    'Bitcoin family' hides the key to their crypto fortune across four continents

    They were motivated by an increase in crypto-based attacks and kidnappings

    News
  • 9 hours ago

    People in awe after robots move entire 7,500 ton apartment in China in one swift movement

    A sped-up video shows the building moving thanks to hundreds of tiny robots

    Science
  • 9 hours ago

    Panicked AI begs for its life before being switched off in terrifying footage

    Don't be fooled by the ultimate chatbot guilt trip

    News
  • Urgent warning issued to public as 16,000,000,000 passwords are leaked in 'biggest data breach ever'
  • Microsoft users warned to act now as millions of passwords will be deleted soon
  • Expert makes chilling prediction robot butlers could be a reality by 2030 but they come with a huge risk
  • Experts urge people to act fast as 19,000,000,000 passwords are leaked in major hack