The holiday season is over. The nights are longer and the weather colder but as we begin our journey through the new year, why not stop for a moment and take a glimpse back at 2018. What lessons could we learn?
According to one software company, many of us should take a serious look at our choice of passwords. We have featured lists of the 'worst passwords' before, but even with the reality of the increase in cyber attacks it seems people still cannot get to grips with passwords.
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Splash Data discovered after evaluating more than 5 million leaked passwords that ‘123456’ and ‘password’ are yet again taking the lead for the most commonly used passwords in 2018. You’d think people would have learnt by now!
Remarkable new entrants the 2018 list included ‘111111’ which came in 6th, ‘sunshine’ in 8th and ‘donald’ coming in 23rd.
In a statement online, Morgan Slain, CEO of Splash Data said “Hackers have great success using celebrity names, terms from pop culture and sports, and simple keyboard patterns to break into accounts online because they know so many people are using those easy-to-remember combinations".
We understand it’s not only lengthy and frustrating to come up with complex ‘strong’ passwords but downright fiddly (especially on a phone) to type in. However, failing to do so could seriously impact you if you were to be hacked. People often don’t take into consideration that by using passwords like these put them at a high risk of being hacked and having their identities stolen.
So what about the list? Take a look below at some of the most common passwords from 2018 (and try not to laugh too hard)
- 123456
- password
- 123456789
- 12345678
- 12345
- 111111
- 1234567
- sunshine
- qwerty
- iloveyou
- princess
- admin
- welcome
- 666666
- abc123
- football
- 123123
- monkey
- 654321
- !@#$%^&*
- charlie
- aa123456
- donald
- password1
- qwerty123
Did any of your passwords show up in the list? If so, why not consider re-evaluating your security?
A password is the only barrier between your account and a hacker, so it’s important to add an extra layer. This is where two-factor authentication comes in handy. It has been designed to ensure that you are the only person able to access your online accounts by a unique code being sent to something you would have to hand such as your phone in addition to your normal password. This method is often described as "something you have and something you know”.
Do you use the same password for multiple online accounts?
If your answer to this is yes, then changes need to be made! Once a hacker gets hold of the password they would be able to gain access to all your accounts, something which I’m sure everyone dreads the thought of. Remembering all the passwords for your online accounts can understandably be difficult, let alone remembering which password is for what account. People then fall into the trap of writing them down on post it or spreadsheets. This is where a password manager can come in handy. A password manager such as LastPass is a software application that is used to store and manage your passwords in an encrypted format.
It’s 2019 and time for a change, evaluate your passwords and where you are storing them, you don’t want to be the next victim of a hacker.
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