![]() That might have even more serious repercussions if hackers are able to steal corporate data as a result. And if we use the same passwords at work as in our personal lives, we might even be exposing our employer to possible cyber-risk. Food: Almost 8.6 million passwords used the word “fish.”Įven worse: if we reuse these passwords, write them down in plain sight or share them with others, it will make life even easier for would-be hackers and fraudsters.Video games: The most popular in 2022 was “arma” with over 6.2 million users.Cars: Over eight million users had “mini” as their password.Movies: The most popular was “leon” with 6.4 million passwords.Musical artists: Topped by U2, with over 33 million hits.Swear words: The most popular of which was f*ck, used over 21 million times.Fashion brands: e.g, “tiffany,” which was used nearly 14.8 million times.Sports teams: e.g., football team “Red Star Belgrade,” which had a count of over 58.5 million.The world’s 20 most common passwords in 2022 (source: NordPass)Īside from these most basic of passwords, researchers see similar patterns emerging every year. You can browse through the whole list on NordPass’s website, but here are the 20 that topped the list this year. Second came “123456” followed by the slightly longer “123456789.” Rounding out the top five were “guest” and “qwerty.” Most of those log-ins can be cracked in less than a second. According to a 3TB database of passwords spilled in security incidents, the most popular across 30 countries was “password,” with nearly five million hits. Unfortunately, many internet users are making life easier for the bad guys. The value of fraudulent payment card transactions in 2021 exceeded US$32bn, and is predicted to rise to US$38.5bn by 2027. Or use it themselves in payment card and other fraud. Once inside your account, hackers can steal any personal and card data stored therein. Beware typing in passwords in public as they could be seen by eavesdroppers. Shoulder surfing: Another oldie, and more common now that people are travelling again to work.Once on a device or machine it will covertly harvest passwords as they’re typed in. Keyloggers/info-stealers: Information stealing malware is sometimes spread by phishing emails or malicious mobile apps placed in app stores.They then feed this into automated scripts to try in large quantities across multiple sites and apps simultaneously, to see if there’s a match. Credential stuffing: A type of brute force attack where hackers use previously breached passwords bought off the cybercrime underground.Often they’ll feed in commonly used passwords to see if they produce a match. Brute forcing: Using automated tools, hackers can now use trial and error in an attempt to crack open accounts.Typically they’ll make up an excuse why you need to re-enter your login and other details. A scammer reaches out via email, text or phone pretending to be a trusted entity. Phishing: One of the oldest tricks around.One report from June revealed 24 billion usernames and password combinations circulating in online criminal marketplaces – a 65% increase on 2020 figures and nearly four for every person on the planet.Ĭriminals use a variety of techniques to get hold of passwords including: That’s why they’re so popular on the cybercrime underground. Often we have card details and personal data stored in these accounts. Our log-ins represent the keys to our digital lives – which today could be anything from our streaming services, online banking, and messaging, to ride hailing accounts and social media. Waiting until it’s too late could cost you a lot of extra time, money and stress. Even better, change the way you manage all of your log-ins. If yours is on the list, change it immediately. NordPass’s list of the top 200 most common passwords of 2022 tells us all we need to know. It may be time we did, because the truth is we don’t all know how to use passwords securely. And many of us are reluctant to learn new ways. Why? Because we all know exactly how to use them. But it’s still the main way we log-in to our online accounts and mobile applications. Security experts have been predicting the death of the password for well over a decade.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |