Sorry, but if your password is actually 'password', you're kind of asking to be hacked. Am I right?
But even if you're not a total moron, it's important to update your password regularly to avoid getting caught out by online hackers.
And it has recently been revealed what the most common and easily infiltrated passwords are of 2023. Will yours appear on the list?
For the last few years, password manager Nordpass has helped users encrypt their information - and they have explained why you really need to keep on top of 'password hygiene'.
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"Unfortunately, passwords keep getting weaker, and people still don't maintain proper password hygiene," said NordPass CEO Jonas Karklys.
"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."
I know what you're thinking, and yes it can be a massive pain in the a**e when you think of a password that is hard to guess - and even harder to remember.
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But with just one master password required for authentication, it's a lot easier than jotting down each separate one for each account.
Tomas Smalakys, the CTO, added: “With the terrifying risks password users encounter, alternative methods in online authentication are now essential.
“Passkey technology, considered the most promising innovation to replace passwords, is successfully paving its way, gaining trust among individuals and progressive companies worldwide.
“Being among the first password managers to offer this technology, we see people are curious to test new things, as long as this helps eliminate the hassle of passwords.”
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Now, the moment you have all been waiting for - here are the top 10 most common passwords in 2023, collected by the Cybernews Investigation Team:
1) 123456
2) 123456789
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3) qwerty
4) password
5) 12345
6) qwerty123
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7) 1q2w3e
8) 12345678
9) 111111
10) 1234567890
Passwords as simple as those above, according to experts at NordPass, can be very easily cracked by online thieves and hackers.
"We collected data from publicly leaked data breaches, including the Breach Compilation, Collection #1-5, and other databases," Cybernews' Paulius Masiliauskas explains.
"We then anonymized the data and detached the passwords so that we could look at that data in isolation and find the most popular passwords and phrases used.
"In total, we were able to analyze 15,212,645,925 passwords, of which 2,217,015,490 were unique.
"We discovered some interesting things about the way that people create passwords: their favorite sports teams, cities, food, and even curse words.
"We could even deduce the probable age of the person by looking at which year they use in their password."
So, if you want to generate a strong password, make sure you do the following:
1) Use a long password
2) Include numbers, symbols, lowercase, and uppercase letters
3) Avoid popular passwords, that includes 'password'
4) Use a secure password manager
Topics: Technology, Hacks, Weird, Viral
Anish Vij