Newsletter
Every year, Keeper takes a look at the most commonly used passwords and their latest data once again shows that a user’s choice of password(s) is far from secure. Most users often see news stories about hackers stealing private information that should have been password protected, but according to the figures, 17-percent of them still opt to use “123456” as their password. Another problem Keeper found was that websites are not encouraging the creation of secure passwords by forcing users to include at least one capital letter, a number, and a special character while creating a password for their service.
Keeper reviewed 10 million passwords while conducting their study and discovered that the passwords used today are similar to the ones people have been using for years. Seven of the top 15 passwords are six characters or shorter and can be unscrambled in seconds by sophisticated software. Apart from developers and administrators, a part of the blame also falls to the users, many of whom are opting for short passwords which can easily be recalled. Many users apparently believe that passwords such as “1q2w3e4r” or “123qwe” are so clever that nobody will figure them out. However, Keeper’s study says otherwise, as those two are among the top 25 passwords used in 2016.
As shown below, the top ten passwords used are “123456,” “123456789,” “qwerty,” “12345678,” “111111,” “1234567890,” “1234567,” “password,” “123123,” and “987654321.” If any of these look familiar to you, it’s strongly advised you change them now to something more secure. About half of the 10 million passwords used are represented in the top 25 passwords of 2016, Keeper claims. The company recommends several methods of protecting your information with a secure password, including using a variety of characters and avoiding patterns like “123.456.789” that can easily be deciphered. Keeper also recommended users to avoid dictionary terms like “google” or “password” that are commonly used and frequently cracked. The last suggestion is to use a password manager that can generate passwords for you to use and then remember them for your convenience. Something as important as a password probably needs to be given more thought and concern in today’s complicated world, but it seems that many people are still not taking their password(s) seriously enough.
