(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
With
the current era where cyber-attacks have been rampant across the globe, millions of people have been found to be still using ‘easy-to-guess’ passwords such as 123456 for their online accounts such as Facebook, Online
banking, Emails and Twitter.
According to a new research released by the National Crime Security Centre (NCSC), more than 30 million victims used 123456789 as their password to protect their sensitive information on various online accounts.
The report found ‘123456’ was the most used, ahead of 123456789 and qwerty – the series of letters which appear in a line on a computer keyboard.
The report by the NCSC, further revealed that hundreds of thousands of people used common names, and their favourite Premier League football teams as their password.
‘Liverpool’ was the most common Premier League Football team used in a password.
Dr Ian Levy, NCSC’s technical director, said: “We understand that cyber security can feel daunting to a lot of people, but the National Cyber Security Centre has published lots of easily applicable advice to make you much less vulnerable.
“Using hard-to-guess passwords is a strong first step and we recommend combining three random but memorable words. Be creative and use words memorable to you, so people can’t guess your password.”
The analysis also found that many British internet users did not know the best ways to protect themselves from cybercrime.
James said: “Cyber security is a serious issue, but there are some simple actions everyone can take to better protect against hackers.
“Password re-use is a major risk that can be avoided – nobody should protect sensitive data with something that can be guessed, like their first name, local football team or favourite band.
The list was created after breached usernames and passwords were obtained from global breaches and published on ‘Have I Been Pwned’ website by international web security expert Troy Hunt.
The website main purpose is to allow allows people to check if they have an account that has been compromised in a recent data breach.
Hunt said: “Making good password choices is the single biggest control consumers have over their own personal security posture.
“We typically haven’t done a very good job of that either as individuals or as the organisations asking us to register with them.
“Recognising the passwords that are most likely to result in a successful account takeover is an important first step in helping people create a more secure online presence.”
Digital Minister Margot James urged internet users not to make hackers’ lives “easy” by choosing weak passwords, while the National Cyber Security Centre urged people to use three random words as passwords.
“Using hard-to-guess passwords is a strong first step and we recommend combining three random but memorable words. Be creative and use words memorable to you, so people can’t guess your password.”
Here is the list of sampled easy to guess passwords;
The 20 most used passwords
123456 (23.2m)
123456789 (7.7m)
qwerty (3.8m)
password (3.6m)
1111111 (3.1m)
12345678 (2.9m)
abc123 (2.8m)
1234567 (2.5m)
password1 (2.4m)
12345 (2.3m)
1234567890 (2.2m)
123123 (2.2 m)
000000 (1.9m)
Iloveyou (1.6m)
1234 (1.3m)
1q2w3e4r5t (1.2m)
Qwertyuiop (1.1m)
123 (1.02m)
Monkey (980, 209)
Dragon (968,625)
Top 5 names
ashley (432,276)
michael (425,291)
daniel (368,227)
jessica (324,125)
charlie (308,939)
Top 5 football teams
liverpool (280,723)
chelsea (216,677)
arsenal (179,095)
manutd (59,440)
everton (46,619)
Top 5 musicians
blink182 (285,706)
50cent (191,153)
eminem (167,983)
metallica (140,841)
slipknot (140,833)
Top five fictional characters
superman (333,139)
naruto (242,749)
tigger (237,290)
pokemon (226,947)
batman (203,116)
