Bad password hygiene can lead to a variety of cyberattacks including; data breaches, account takeovers, and other costly consequences. It is important that security administrators routinely invest time and resources to educating users the importance of password hygiene.
Password Hygiene refers to the degree to which a user's passwords are selected and managed according to secure best practices.
Choosing easy to guess or obvious passwords may leave your online accounts susceptible to cyber-attacks with hackers purposely targeting accounts with weak passwords to gain quick and easy access, often leading to severe consequences. Weak passwords provide an easy avenue for cybercriminals to exploit.
Conclusion. Passwords have become an outdated method of authentication that are vulnerable to many threats and attacks. Using only a password-based authentication method is now deemed less secure due to the myriad available password attacks.
Weak passwords can be guessable or attacker can bruteforce if the length of the password is very small, so try to use random strings with special characters. Though that can be hard to remember as a security point of view it's quite secure. Strong password is also needed to be stored properly.
Default and weak passwords are a significant threat to organisational cybersecurity. Device manufacturers and software vendors use default passwords that are often easy to guess, making it easy for hackers to access systems and devices.
Weak passwords can be broken quite easily, which means they offer very little security protection. Users tend to choose simple passwords that are easy to remember; however, this also makes them easier to crack by hackers or other nefarious users who may want to get into your account or system.
Because many people use weak passwords, brute-force attacks remain effective for hacking accounts. Attackers use an automated computer algorithm to rapidly try different passwords. Some brute-force attacks can attempt one billion passwords per second!
Passwords still act as a simple, but surprisingly effective frontline protection for data and sensitive accounts. There are a few reasons: They're easy to use. If compromised, they are also easy to replace.
30% of internet users have experienced a data breach due to a weak password. Two-thirds of Americans use the same password across multiple accounts. The most commonly used password is “123456.”
Bad password hygiene can lead to a variety of cyberattacks including; data breaches, account takeovers, and other costly consequences.
Primarily, changing passwords attempts to protect organisations from cyberattacks that make use of credentials that have been compromised in previous data breaches.
Using a strong password is essential because it helps protect your personal and sensitive information from unauthorized access. Hackers and cybercriminals use various methods to crack weak passwords, such as dictionary attacks, brute force attacks, and social engineering.
What is the most commonly hacked password? The first place among the most hacked passwords assuredly belongs to 123456. As many as 23.2 million victims globally used this password when their accounts were leaked.
Phishing is one of the most common ways that hackers gain access to other people's login data. Phishing emails often contain links that lead to fake websites designed to trick you into entering your password.
“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.
A password made up of a random combination of upper-and-lower case letters, numbers, and special characters, such as Pz27Qx9WQlm!, is nearly uncrackable.
Password length refers to the number of characters (letters, numbers, punctuation marks, etc.) in a password. Experts recommend using longer passwords when possible. The longer a password is, the more possible permutations it has, making it harder and harder for cybercriminals to crack.
If malicious individuals get ahold of one of your passwords, they can easily access your online accounts that hold sensitive information such as your email, shopping and bank accounts.