By: Priyank Chopra, BCA 4th Sem, 1st Shift
People are terrible at picking passwords. According to an analysis by security firm Keeper of 10 million leaked passwords last year. There were several major data breaches in 2016 in which people’s login details were leaked online.
In cases like LinkedIn, the breach happened years ago, but the data only recently surfaced online. Both instances provided researchers with an exceptional look at the security habits of millions of people — it’s not pretty. The first and second most-used password was 123456 and 123456789, according to Keeper, followed by the qwerty. Then came 12345678, and in fifth place was the obvious 111111.
“Looking at the list of 2016’s most common passwords, we couldn’t stop shaking our heads,” the researchers wrote in a blog post. Website operators that allow such flimsy protection are either careless or lazy. Longer passwords can be harder to remember. But that’s not an excuse to just use qwerty.
Security experts recommend people to use a different, strong password for each service or website and storing their passwords with a password manager app. That way, if one service you used is breached, your accounts on others sites or services are not compromised as well and you should also activate two-factor authentication whenever possible so that even if your password is exposed, attackers still can’t get into your account without access to your phone. Passwords are a pain. Actually, they're more than that. They're becoming unmanageable.
The average person has various passwords they have to keep track of and that number is only growing as we sign up for more apps and online services.
The situation is made even worse by sites that require users to change passwords often and by general hacking attacks that necessitate replacing passwords.
Many people resort to simple tricks- using simple, easy to remember passwords, reusing favourite passwords over and over, or slightly altering some passwords by changing their order or substituting numbers for letters. But these passwords are often easy to guess, and if your password on one site is hacked by the hacker, then he can potentially gain access to your accounts on other sites.
As hopeless and frustrating as all this seems, there is a solution- using a password manager.
Password managers are programs that store all of your passwords in one place, on your computer or phone or in a secure space in the cloud. What's more, most of the password managers will generate complicated, hard-to-crack passwords for you. Many password managers will easily fill in passwords automatically when you go to a website. And some will do the same when you launch apps on your smartphone.
Most popular password managers are: LastPass, Dashlane, KeePass, 1Password, Roboform
If you are predictable or apply the simple and shortest password for all your accounts, you are going to get hacked. If you register to some sites that you know are risky, and you don’t put any effort to protect your information, you are going to get hacked. It is so easy for a hacker with skills to leave you without a thing. The cost of being lazy with your protection on the internet can be really high.
On a long enough timescale, everyone gets hacked. But by not using — and reusing — weak passwords, you can limit the damage.
People are terrible at picking passwords. According to an analysis by security firm Keeper of 10 million leaked passwords last year. There were several major data breaches in 2016 in which people’s login details were leaked online.
In cases like LinkedIn, the breach happened years ago, but the data only recently surfaced online. Both instances provided researchers with an exceptional look at the security habits of millions of people — it’s not pretty. The first and second most-used password was 123456 and 123456789, according to Keeper, followed by the qwerty. Then came 12345678, and in fifth place was the obvious 111111.
“Looking at the list of 2016’s most common passwords, we couldn’t stop shaking our heads,” the researchers wrote in a blog post. Website operators that allow such flimsy protection are either careless or lazy. Longer passwords can be harder to remember. But that’s not an excuse to just use qwerty.
Security experts recommend people to use a different, strong password for each service or website and storing their passwords with a password manager app. That way, if one service you used is breached, your accounts on others sites or services are not compromised as well and you should also activate two-factor authentication whenever possible so that even if your password is exposed, attackers still can’t get into your account without access to your phone. Passwords are a pain. Actually, they're more than that. They're becoming unmanageable.
The average person has various passwords they have to keep track of and that number is only growing as we sign up for more apps and online services.
The situation is made even worse by sites that require users to change passwords often and by general hacking attacks that necessitate replacing passwords.
Many people resort to simple tricks- using simple, easy to remember passwords, reusing favourite passwords over and over, or slightly altering some passwords by changing their order or substituting numbers for letters. But these passwords are often easy to guess, and if your password on one site is hacked by the hacker, then he can potentially gain access to your accounts on other sites.
As hopeless and frustrating as all this seems, there is a solution- using a password manager.
Password managers are programs that store all of your passwords in one place, on your computer or phone or in a secure space in the cloud. What's more, most of the password managers will generate complicated, hard-to-crack passwords for you. Many password managers will easily fill in passwords automatically when you go to a website. And some will do the same when you launch apps on your smartphone.
Most popular password managers are: LastPass, Dashlane, KeePass, 1Password, Roboform
If you are predictable or apply the simple and shortest password for all your accounts, you are going to get hacked. If you register to some sites that you know are risky, and you don’t put any effort to protect your information, you are going to get hacked. It is so easy for a hacker with skills to leave you without a thing. The cost of being lazy with your protection on the internet can be really high.
On a long enough timescale, everyone gets hacked. But by not using — and reusing — weak passwords, you can limit the damage.
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