International. NordPass has just revealed what were the 200 most used passwords on the web in 2020, showing once again that various easy-to-guess number combinations are still as popular as ever. Seven of the ten worst passwords are made up of various numerical combinations, with "123456", "123456789" and "12345678" ranking first, second and fifth, respectively. Third place went to "picture1", a new addition to the list, and was followed by the already frequent one on this list: "password".
Enabling multi-factor authentication and the use of password managers can help reduce the risk of security breaches.
Most people create hundreds of passwords. Cybersecurity experts recommend that we make these passwords long and complex, using all the character sets on your keyboard so that they are not easy to guess and harder to hack. This also makes them hard to remember, so what do most people do? They reuse passwords, which is also a big no. Reusing the password on all accounts and logins increases the likelihood of being hacked.
The importance of creating a unique password for each login
It is very important to create unique passwords for each account. The reason is that if an attacker discovers your password for one account, you're likely to test that password for other popular online services and could gain access to all of your accounts. The advice to create unique passwords for each site and each app is sound, but since most people don't know why it's recommended, they tend not to follow it. But with so many data breaches occurring today, it's likely that your account information has been compromised for one site or another.
How can I improve the hygiene of my password? There are several steps you can take to improve the hygiene of your passwords and create stronger passwords. Below are four tips from Hikvision to reduce hackers and improve password hygiene with useful links that will make life easier and make it much more secure:
1. Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) as many places as you can. This will protect your account even if an attacker gets your password. MFA adds two or more verifiable tests or factors to the authentication process to greatly reduce security issues by reducing the chances of the wrong person accessing an account.
2. Avoid reusing passwords, as this greatly increases the chances that your account will be compromised with a credential stuffing attack. Learn more here.
3. Sign up for "Was I Pwned?" so you get an alert if your email address shows up in a data breach. This is a free service and will often alert you to a breach before the provider or website contacts you.
4. Use a password manager. Since all of our passwords should be long and unique, it's unreasonable to expect someone to remember every password an average person should use. Using a password manager will relieve you of that burden because you can store all your keys in the password manager and you won't have to remember any of them. Password managers can also automatically enter your passwords on websites for you.
Reducing security concerns also includes firmware updates and patching software for anything connected to the internet, including DVRs, your home router, and smart devices.
