Password is the most important factor when it comes to online account security. If someone knows your password and accesses your credentials, he can steal your content and your vital information.
Although most websites have many security measures in place in order to protect against any attempts to steal their users’ accounts, revealed passwords can be used to bypass these security measures.
Most people are too lazy to create a strong password or just think that no one will know the easy password and username combination. And many people have the bad habit of using the same passwords for all accounts. These reasons lead to their passwords being easy to hack.
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The Top 10 Most Commonly Used Passwords
- 123456
- password
- welcome
- ninja
- abc123
- 123456789
- 12345678
- sunshine
- princess
- qwerty
Other commonly used passwords are ashley, michael, blink182, 50cent, superman, naruto, tigger, password1.
Strong Password Ideas
It’s important to choose strong, secure passwords that are difficult for hackers to guess. By avoiding common passwords like those listed above, and instead choosing a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols, you can help protect your data and personal information from cybercriminals.
Here are some ideas for a strong password:
- Make sure you use at minimum ten characters.
- Do not use directly identifiable information such as name, birthday, driver’s license, etc…
- Mix lower case, upper case, special characters, and numbers in a password. A strong password should include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. For example, “p@ssW0rD!” is a strong password that includes a mix of characters.
- Use a unique password for each separate account. Using the same password for multiple accounts makes it easier for hackers to gain access to all of your accounts if they crack your password. Instead, use different passwords for each account to limit the impact of a potential security breach.
- Avoid common dictionary words such as “password”, “qwerty”. You can see the easiest passwords to hack are the one that contains these characters.
- Make your own encoding. This is strongly suggested as they can help you understand and remember the password for each account and the others won’t know exactly how to decode. For example, if you know a foreign language, convert a part to a foreign language.