The Cybernews Investigation Team have complied a list of passwords that are at the most risk of being cracked.
If you find yours on the list, make sure to change your password ASAP!
With passwords needed for everything from your bank to gaming subscriptions, and more, it's a real struggle to keep track of them all.
Password manager Nordpass is warning the public that if their password is on a new list - it could be at risk of getting cracked in a matter of seconds. Having any of these passwords - or something similar - is like putting a welcome sign on your account.
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The best practice of choosing a password is to use a random password generator, and choose a random combination of letters (upper and lowercase), numbers and special characters.
Despite common sense, you'd be surprised how much a sequence of numbers and the word 'password' are still used in many peoples' passwords.
The Cybernews Investigation Team complied a list of the top 10 most common passwords in 2023:
1) 123456
2) 123456789
3) qwerty
4) password
5) 12345
6) qwerty123
7) 1q2w3e
8) 12345678
9) 111111
10) 1234567890
During the investigation, the team analysed 15,212,645,925 passwords and found only '2,217,015,490 to be unique'. That's less than 15%!
"Unfortunately, passwords keep getting weaker, and people still don't maintain proper password hygiene," said Jonas Karklys, NordPass CEO.
Even though the data was anonymised and isolated, the team said they could still 'deduce the probable age of the person by looking at which year they use in their password.'
Alongside this, the investigation found people are using 'their favourite sports teams, cities, food, and even curse words' to create their passwords.
And I get it, it gets harder to choose a password every time you create a new account or need to update its details.
However, Nordpass emphasises that with our lives slowly growing more digital and more of our sensitive and personal data stored online, the risk of being hacked is much more serious.
Karklys said: 'It's important to understand that passwords are the gateway to our digital lives, and with us spending more and more time online, it's becoming enormously important to take better care of our cybersecurity.'
To create a strong password, make sure you do the following:
- Use a long password
- Include numbers, symbols, lowercase, and uppercase letters (the more randomised, the better)
- Use a secure password manager
- Use a password generator
And more importantly, make sure to NOT:
- Choose a password that include obvious words like 'password'
- Choose a password that has any relation to you or your life (e.g. mother's maiden name)
- Choose a password with names
- Tell ANYONE your password
Remember, the less association the password has with you, the more secure it is.