If you’ve not changed your online passwords in a while now could be a good time to do some Spring cleaning. It’s officially World Password Day today, and experts are warning that millions of us remain at risk due to using codes that are way too easy to crack. Many also use the same passwords for endless accounts, which can make the life of hackers far too simple.
It’s easy to see how so many people develop bad habits, especially with so many online accounts available, but today offers a good reminder to sort out your online life.
Some of the worst passwords you can use are things such as “123456”, “qwerty” and “password” – yes people really do still use that phrase to secure their accounts.
According to a recent report, the worst 10 passwords have been used more than eight million times and have been involved in more than 120 million data breaches.
Here are some of the most used passwords – if yours is on this list, then you must change it.
• 123456
• 123456789
• 1234
• 12345678
• 12345
• password
• 111111
• admin
• 123123
• abc123
Other passwords to watch out for include football teams such as “liverpool” or “arsenal” and people’s names such as “charlie”.
Security experts at McAfee say that Brits have an average of 47 online accounts, with potentially vulnerable passwords, exposing users to increased cybersecurity risks.
“Password theft remains a popular means of attack for cybercriminals and once the information has been recovered, it can circulate freely online or be sold to other malicious actors,” McAfee explained.
“In this context, password management is more crucial than ever: 66% of Internet users use the same password for several accounts, while 80% of data breaches are due to poor password security.”
So what do you need to do to stay safe? There are some very simple tips to secure accounts, including making your passwords stronger by adding numbers, capital letters and symbols. Some new technolgy from firms such as Apple and Google can even create unhackable passwords for you which makes it much harder for cyber crooks to gain access.
McAfee says you should only have one password per account. “A single password for different accounts can be more easily recovered by cybercriminals. It is therefore necessary to use different, hard-to-detect passwords to ensure the security of your accounts,” the experts explained.
Other top tips include using a password manager to help remember your codes and and use cleanup tools to get rid of dormant accounts and bad passwords.
