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Password, 123456, 123456789, and qwerty top the rather disappointing list of the most popular – and most breached – passwords used in Australia and worldwide.
Australians, it appears, remain remarkably and dangerously unimaginative when it comes to their passwords, with the remarkably easy-to-guess “password” topping this year’s list of most commonly used passwords.
Password security specialists NordPass, working with NordStellar, analysed data from various sources – including the darknet – totalling 2.5 terabytes of password information across 11 industries and 44 countries to come up with its latest list of most compromised passwords used globally, and it is a veritable greatest hits of how not to secure any personal or business account.
The top 10 passwords are largely some variation on the word itself, a simple list of sequential numbers, “qwerty”, or a combination. The only password that stands out from that list in the top 10 is equally unimaginative and yet still oddly Australian “boobies”.
Make of that what you will.
“It’s shocking to see that, despite years of warnings, businesses continue to use weak passwords that are incredibly easy for hackers to exploit,” Karolis Arbaciauskas, head of business product at NordPass, said in a statement.
“Cyber criminals don’t need sophisticated tools to breach a company when employees are using ‘password’ or their own names to protect sensitive data.”
Alongside the typical poorly chosen passwords listed – and the rest of the top 20 isn’t much better – the personal names as passwords is a similarly worrying trend. Some users are even using their email addresses as passwords, which is practically giving the keys to your account to anyone willing to make a few guesses.
Other all-too-easy-to-guess passwords include “admin”, “new user”, and “welcome”, while what are clearly meant to be temporary passwords – such as “newpass“ and “temppass” remain in use long after they have been initially assigned.
“Passwords are the first line of defence, yet they remain the weakest link in corporate security,” Arbaciauskas said.
“Hackers don’t need sophisticated techniques when businesses hand them easy entry points. Until companies start treating password security as a priority, they will remain vulnerable to attacks.”
Here are the top 20 most compromised passwords in Australia:
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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