How easy would it be to hack YOU? Warning issued to EVERY Australian includes terms you should NEVER USE in your password
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Unfortunately, cyber criminals are getting smarter and smarter with their tactics every day. In order to combat this, we must not settle for using only one simple password to log in to multiple websites. Don’t make it easy for ANYONE to hack into your personal accounts!
Password laziness puts millions of Australians along with the companies they work for at risk of cybercrime, experts have warned, with approximately two-thirds of Australian businesses and large corporations vulnerable to getting hacked.
Proofpoint research found that 42 percent of working Australians reuse the same password for several accounts. But Cybersecurity expert Lawrence Patrick of Zirilio warned that using default passwords poses significant risks.
“Using a default password may seem like an easy option for you to remember, but the problem is cyber criminals know the default passwords too,” Mr Patrick said prior to World Password Day on Thursday.
“There is a real problem with companies not taking enough steps to increase their cyber defences. Most computers, hardware and software, are set up to allow you to use them right away but the assumption is that you're going to go back and customise the default password to make it secure.”
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US tech giant Microsoft says the most commonly used password last year was 'admin', which is currently being used by a whopping 20 million people internationally.
Other common password combinations include '123456' and the word 'password', according to research conducted by password management company NordPass.
Former Security and Compliance Advisor at software company Salesforce, Jay Hira, advised users to refrain from using common words as well as personal information when creating a password.
“Use of personal information such as your date of birth, father's middle name, mother's maiden name, etc, are all too common,” Mr Hira shared.
“Password reuse after a period of time and using the same password across multiple platforms are other common mistakes that we've all made at some point.”
As more people shifted to a work-from-home set up in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, data theft and hacking consequently soared to record levels based on the latest data.
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A staggering total of 67,500 cybercrime reports were recorded by The Australian Cyber Security Centre in 2021 – numbers that rose nearly 13 percent in comparison to the previous financial year.
Fraud, online shopping scams, and online banking scams were among the top reported cybercrime types and additionally, self-reported losses from cybercrime totalled over $33 billion, according to the ACSC's latest annual cyber threat report.
Hackers typically use sly tactics such as sending fake text messages attached with suspicious links to vulnerable users in order to gain access to their private information.
Last year, Microsoft discovered over 280,000 cyber security breaches, with 98 percent of the victims’ passwords less than 10 characters and only two percent (of the passwords) including a special character.
Victoria Police recognises cybercrime as 'a key facilitator' of organised crime.
“(We) remain unwavering in (our) commitment to minimising the impact that cyber-dependent and technology-enabled crime have on the Victorian community,” a spokesperson said.
“Cybercrime presents a complex and fast-moving threat and is recognised nationally as a key facilitator of serious and organised crime. There are many practical ways for Victorians to protect themselves online. The resources available on the Australian Cyber Security Centre's website are a great place to start.”
At this point, you’re probably wondering what specific precautions you can take to stay safe online. Well, according to experts, complex passwords (meaning those with a random combination of numbers, letters, and special characters) are generally the strongest and hardest ones to guess.
“You can do clever things like use a phrase from a poem, or a book or a song,” Mr Patrick recommended. “If you want to make it even stronger, you could create an abbreviation that doesn't mean anything to anyone but makes sense to you.”
Image Credit: haveibeenpwned.com
He also recommended occasionally checking if your email has been breached through the website Have I Been Pwned, which tracks password breaches for you in the blink of an eye.
Fortunately, the prominence of facial recognition software may make our lives easier and our accounts safer, enabling us to surf the web freely without the burden of remembering seemingly endless passwords.
“You've probably noticed technology companies are pushing really hard to get us to use facial recognition,” Mr Patrick said.
“Soon, everything will be biometric. It will just be a face scan, retina scan or a fingerprint scan tied to your identity and that's how you will log in and authenticate yourself.”
Here are 15 of the most common passwords used across the globe made by NordPass:
1. 123456 (followed by ‘12345’ and ‘123456789’)
2. qwerty
3. password
4. 111111
5. 123123
6. qwerty123
7. abc123
8. 000000
9. iloveyou
10. asdasd
11. dragon
12. football
13. princess
14. computer
15. michael
The preceding passwords listed take less than 3 seconds to crack and are still used by millions of people.
Did you see your password on the list? If so, it’s definitely time to update it. Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
Unsure how you can strengthen your passwords? Watch the video below:
Video Credit: Safety in Canada
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