Those that are derived directly from words or phrases of any language. Embedding a number or case-shift within a word (of any language) does not make a valid password. Examples of bad passwords include: time2go, big$deal, ivyLeague, 2morrow, money$, and Ivyleague. Those that are all upper-case or all lower-case.
Just take what weak passwords are — predictable, common, simple, and short — and do the opposite. A strong password must be: Random: Don't use words, phrases, names, and acronyms. The more random, the better.
Equally concerning were Google's findings that almost a quarter (24 percent) of Americans have used some variation of the following weak passwords: abc123, Password, 123456, Iloveyou, 111111, Qwerty, Admin, and Welcome. Clearly these are all very simple for anyone to guess and so provide very little protection.
These poorly-thought-out passwords include gems like "123456", "password" and "qwerty" (the first six letters on a standard English-language keyboard). Other winners are "111111", "123456789" and the mildly ingenious "1q2w3e" (a fun little finger dance on a keyboard — try it yourself).
Good passwords are made up of a few key components including randomness, complexity and length. If your password is predictable, simple and or/short, chances are it is less secure. A combination of random letters, numbers and characters will be less likely to be hacked into.
1Password is one of the best password managers on the market for several reasons. It excels in cross-platform functionality, ease of use, good prices, and, most importantly, robust security. It uses industry-leading encryption technology for your vault and secures each user account with a 34-character security code.
Your initials followed by your age. Telephone numbers. Pet or kid names. Repeating dictionary words, like appleapple or dogdog. Passwords that have remained the same since 1998.
1Password has never had a breach. But if one should occur, a breach of our systems would not put your sensitive vault data at risk. When we designed the security architecture of 1Password, we had to account for the possibility that some day our servers could be compromised.
For instance, the least popular combination, 8068, appears less than 0.001 percent of the time. Probably because it's so random—it follows no discernible pattern such as a date or repetition of numbers. “Statistically, 8068 is the safest PIN,” says Tyler Moffitt, senior threat research analyst at Webroot.
Tips for creating strong passwords
Never use personal information such as your name, birthday, user name, or email address. This type of information is often publicly available, which makes it easier for someone to guess your password. Use a longer password.
Avoid using simple dictionary words because such passwords are easily guessed, and are vulnerable to dictionary-based and brute force attacks. For example do not use your name, pet name, or simple words such as dog, cat, football, etc.
The fact is, cybercriminals know that passwords are the weak link. That's why they are a top target for hackers. It works. Stolen credentials are the top cited action involved in security breaches.
And here are the four major takeaways: “guest” beat out “123456” to be the most popular password among Americans in 2022. Simple combinations of letters, numbers, and symbols, such as “a1b2c3,” “abc123,” or “qwerty,” are highly popular in the US.
An example of a unique and strong password created by a password generator is “JU4$4SX%su^N.” It's twelve characters long, has no predictable pattern and contains a mixture of numbers, special characters and both uppercase and lowercase letters.
Research suggests thieves can guess one in five PINs by trying just three combinations. How easy would it be for a thief to guess your four-digit PIN?
These are the combos to avoid — The study found that the most common and easily guessed four-digit PINs were 1234, 0000, 2580, 1111, 5555, 5683, 0852, 2222, 1212, and 1998. As for six-digit PINs, you should avoid 123456, 654321, 111111, 000000, 123123, 666666, 121212, 112233, 789456, and 159753.
The safest 4-digit PIN is '8068' — or at least it was, until researchers at Data Genetics told everyone this week. The researchers there went through a set of 3.4 million four-digit personal identification numbers and found "8068" came up only 25 times.
Hackers steal your passwords through a variety of methods including data breaches, password cracking, guessing, physical theft and malware.
Malware on your computer
With the help of a kind of spyware known as a keylogger program, you are tracked while typing on the infected device. By recording your keystrokes, the hacker can steal your passwords and other sensitive data and use it to access your accounts, including email, social media and online banking.