2017 saw numerous data breaches putting you and your information at risk. While you cannot stop a data breach from happening there are some things that you can do to lessen its impact on you. You’ve probably seen tips on the news like checking your bank account daily and monitoring your credit report but there is something else you can do and that is to use strong passwords.
We get it, it is hard to remember passwords. You have a password for Facebook, for Twitter, for your personal computer, for Amazon, for eBay and then think about all of the passwords that you have for work. The list can be daunting and there is no way to remember them all. So what do you do? Do you write them all down on a sheet of paper? Do you store them using a password manager program? Or do you simply just use the same password over and over?
If you use the same password you shouldn’t be. As 2017 came to an end SplashData released the list of the 100 worst passwords for that year. This comes from analyzing the data breaches for the year and from leaked password logs from those breaches. The two most common passwords are password and 123456. 12345678 came in at number 3 and qwerty followed at number 4. These four have been at the top of this list for several years now so people are just not learning. Fortunately some of the previous favorites like princess, solo and dragon are starting to fall into disuse but there are new ones taking their place. Other popular favorites that have topped the list like abc123 and welcome are also falling out of favor. Some of the new favorites for the year was starwars, monkey, iloveyou, whatever, hello, freedom, letmein and perhaps the most ironic addition of the year: trustno1. Another new addition is 123456789 coming in at number 6. One has to think that 1234567890 is the next logical step and will be ranked shortly.
By using a generic password it makes it easy for someone else to access your account. By using the same password over and over again it makes it easy for someone to access all of your other accounts. If someone gets your password to your email then they probably can guess what your Amazon password is and since Amazon stores your credit card info not only can that person go on a spending spree but now they have your credit card information as well. Not good! Using an unsecure password can have far reaching consequences, just ask John Podesta.
At Nicely Done Sites we take security seriously. There is a reason that the passwords that we give you for your website or for anything are as long and as complex as they are. These passwords cannot be broken easily making both yours and our data much more secure. Experts recommend that a password be changed every 30 days and yes, we know that can be hard to do in a busy life but you will be able to sleep much more soundly at night with your online accounts more secure. If you need an easy way to generate a strong password check out www.passwordgenerator.net.