Be Smart. Don’t be 123456

Thursday, May 3 is World Password Day and here at Uniserve, we’re serious about it. Why? Because some of the most common passwords in the world are:
 
123456
Password
12345678
qwerty
12345
 
Honestly, my favourite password here is “Password”. At least the users had to physically lift their fingers to type it out.
 
I can hear you now, “But what do you mean my password is weak?” or “Who cares if my password is weak” or “Who’s going to hack little ol’ me?” Hear me out.
 
I understand it’s incredibly annoying when passwords require: Upper case, lower case, number, symbol, pi, sigma, the meaning of life, etc. However, the reason for that is to make your password a little more difficult for hackers to, well, hack. When faced with a more difficult sequence or 123456, which one do you think a hacker has easier access to?
 
Make sure your passwords contain a mix of words and numbers that are uncommon to guess. Are they difficult to remember? Good. Use a password manager such as 1Password or Apple Keychain to help you stay on top of it all.
 
You know you cares your password is weak? Sensitive data. Poor password practice doesn’t just impact your own life and contents. If you use a weak password for your work email account, that’s an “in” for hackers to take down your whole company.
 
Don’t believe me? Over one-third of cyberattacks are done through compromised passwords. Not convinced? How about over 30% of passwords contain a name in the top 100 girl and boy name lists. What’s wrong with that? People readily make that information public on their social media feeds. You’re practically inviting people to hack your accounts at that point. Unless your child’s name is Nebuchadnezzar, I’d shy away from using it in your password.
 
Hopefully, on this World Password Day, you’ll consider changing qwerty to at least Qwer21$SuperL@me (it says “qwerty is super lame” – clever, I know).
 
Sources:
 
https://gizmodo.com/the-25-most-popular-passwords-of-2017-you-sweet-misgu-1821425092
https://www.trustwave.com/trustednews/2013/07/ebook-inside-a-hackers-playbook-10-targeted-techniques-that/