Your online accounts could be at risk if you are using these passwords

Published : Jan 16, 2017, 03:08 AM ISTUpdated : Mar 31, 2018, 06:53 PM IST
Your online accounts could be at risk if you are using these passwords

Synopsis

Do you use any of these 25 common passwords? Do you use the same password for multiple accounts? If you follow any of these practices, your account may be at risk. 

It's a pity the year 2016 that witnessed roughly 10 million passwords become public through data breaches had most people using 1234567 as its password. The report highlights that nearly 17 percent users safeguard their accounts with 123456.

 

The report also points out how websites still don't enforce strict password practices and the need for website operators  to take more responsibility for password security. Keeper Security, a cybersecurity company, has released a list of 25 most common passwords of 2016 which includes '1234567', 'password', 'qwerty' and so on among others. Interestingly, rank 15 shows an unsual password '18atcskd2w'. According to Security Researcher, Graham Cluley, these accounts were created by bots, perhaps with the intention of posting spam onto the forums.

 

 Rank Password
 1. 123456
 2. 123456789
 3. qwerty
 4. 12345678
 5. 111111
 6. 1234567890
 7. 1234567
 8. password
 9.  123123
 10.  987654321

 

If you are using any these passwords then your account can be compromised. Take a look at the complete list here.

 

Last year, the Splash Data study had showed how '123456' and 'password' remained the most popular passwords in 2014 and 2015. So, clearly we haven't learnt from our mistakes. With businesses, payments and essentially our lives going online, we need to learn to create stronger and hard to crack passwords. 

 

 

For a strong password, users need to create one using a variety of numerical, uppercase, lowercase and special characters for protection against brute force attack. Brute force crcaking hardware and software are most commonly used that can easily compromise your password. Another common way  is using dictionary words. Dictionary cracks guess the passwords using common words (like the ones you see in the list), and then move to the whole dictionary.

 

It is always advisable not to make passwords using a common pattern on your keyboard such as 'asdfgh' or more commonly used 'qwerty'. These and likewise are very easy to crack too. It is also important that you don't use the same password for multiple accounts. If you find it difficult to create or remember passwords, it is best to use a password manager. After all, weak passwords are common because stronger are difficult to remember. However, this doesn't mean password managers offers 100 percent safety. It is also recommended you keep changing your password, but that shouldn't come at a cost of creating a weak password. 

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