How Secure is Your Password?

Data breaches and identity theft are on the rise, and the cause is often compromised passwords. After stealing credentials, cybercriminals can use passwords to start disinformation campaigns against companies, use people’s payment information for purchases, and spy on users through Wi-Fi-connected security cameras.

The Impact of Stolen Passwords:

Insecure password practices are exploited in 81% of cyber attacks worldwide, and 61% of all attacks target businesses with less than 1,000 employees. While employee education and training can help, what’s most needed to reverse this trend is for authentication to require additional proof of identity beyond simple username and password, and to be widely deployed by all companies. Only then, will cyber criminals no longer be able to use stolen credentials to access and infect systems or steal data.

Worst passwords used:

123456;

qwerty;

qazwsx;

letmein;

admin;

abc123;

passw0rd;

(...)

How To Create Secure Passwords?

▸ A password should be 16 characters or more; our password-related research has found that 45 percent of Americans use passwords of eight characters or less, which are not as secure as longer passwords;

▸ A password should include a combination of letters, numbers, and characters;

▸ A password shouldn’t be shared with any other account;

▸ A password shouldn’t include any of the user’s personal information like their address or phone number. It’s also best not to include any information that can be accessed on social media like kids’ or pets’ names;

▸ A password shouldn’t contain any consecutive letters or numbers;

▸ A password shouldn’t be the word “password” or the same letter or number repeated;

(...)

AVG time do discover:

How do we check leaked password databases?

We use "Have I Been Pwned", a reputable service that collects information about account and password leaks.