World Password Day is Thursday, May 4, and although it’s not cause for celebration, you might want to mark the occasion by taking a look to see if you’re the target demographic.
Internet safety is a must, especially when it comes to keeping the safety of your personal accounts uncompromised or avoiding a company data breach.
Making sure your backup accounts are up to date and enabling multi-step security measures are all worthwhile efforts, but the most important step is to make sure you have a strong password. Many people don’t.
How safe is your password?
Compared to data from 2021, 73% of the 200 most common passwords in 2022 remain the same. Eighty-three percent of the most common passwords used in 2022 can be cracked in less than a second, according to a study by NordPass, a password manager for businesses and consumers, that analyzed password data.
What are the most popular passwords?
In 2022, “guest” was the most common password in the United States, followed by “123456.”
The rest of the top 20 are as follows:
- password
- 12345
- a1b2c3
- 123456789
- Password1
- 1234
- abc123
- 12345678
- qwerty
- baseball
- football
- unknown
- soccer
- jordan23
- iloveyou
- monkey
- shadow
- g_czechout
If you don’t see any of your passwords used on this list, congratulations! But you’re not out of the woods just yet.
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What do I need to know about creating a safer password?
NordPass found that pop culture heavily influences the passwords people choose around the world, and the most common categories people pull from include fashion brands, swear words, sports, movies, foods, video games, artists and cars.
“Tinder” was used 36,384 times for Tinder users. Creative, right?
We’ll raise that with 8,547,304 appearances from “fish,” 8,118,950 appearances from “kia” and 2,210,441 appearances from “nike.”
“Oscars,” yes, like the coveted award ceremony each year, was used 62,983 times. Other popular passwords with media ties were “euphoria,” “encanto” and “batman.”
Good taste! But despite these movies and TV shows being great entertainment, we don’t think Batman and Robin will be able to save your beloved social media accounts from hackers if you’re using weak passwords. Especially if you use your own name in your password.
Tips for creating a safer password
Here are some other tips to keep your passwords strong and your accounts secure:
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- Check your password strength and update it regularly. If a password is weak, reused or more than 90 days old, it’s time for an update.
- A strong password is complex and contains at least 12 characters with a mix of numbers, symbols, uppercase letters and lowercase letters. Password generators can be a great resource for helping with this.
- Do not reuse passwords. If you have the same passwords for multiple accounts, a hacker will have an easier time breaking into your entire online presence as opposed to one weak account.
- Regularly check the accounts you are linked to. If you no longer use an account and have yet to deactivate it or unlink it from your confidential or sensitive information, it can put your security at risk because you might not be aware it has been hacked.
- If managing multiple complex passwords for all of your accounts sounds like too much work, you’ll be happy to hear you don’t have to. Using a password manager, such as a website or an app, can keep track of all the passwords you use for a multitude of accounts.
Got a tip or a story idea? Contact Krys’tal Griffin at kgriffin@delawareonline.com.
