The most used passwords in the world
How many times a year do you change the passwords of your social networks, your digital bank accounts or, in general, of the online services you use? One time? Twice? None? Perhaps you had not even asked yourself this question! In any of the cases, it is increasingly important that we understand that the management of our passwords is one of the most important factors on which our online security depends.
We live in an increasingly digital world, in which many of our transactions, activities and interactions take place online. The amount of compromised information that we have stored in the digital environment is increasing, and it depends on its proper protection that we can avoid unpleasant shocks and unexpected events. And it is that cybersecurity is becoming a key facet in a digital context in which the activity of cybercriminals is the order of the day.
One of the most well-known and essential components of this cybersecurity is, as we mentioned at the beginning, the management of passwords and digital keys. And perhaps precisely because of this, because it is such a well-known and familiar facet, it is also one whose importance and care we overlook. And this can have serious consequences. Good proof of the lack of attention with which many Internet users deal with this issue is manifested in the lists of the most used passwords in the world.
A study published by ExpressVPN has revealed keys as simple and predictable as: 123456 (or other similar combinations of ordered numbers), QWERTY, qwertyuiop (and other successions of characters placed in order on the keyboard), 000000, 1111111, 123123, abc123 (and a few similar repetitions), password, password1, etc; as well as common single words like “superman”, “monkey”, “princess”, “sunshine” or “dragon”. We also find basic phrases like “letmein” or “iloveyou” among the most used password options.
As we can see, many of these passwords are the easiest to guess, and they are so common around the world that they will be the first ones that cyber snoopers look for when accessing one of your accounts. So it is very clear that they are not good options to use! But these are not the only passwords we have to be aware of. All those that are predictable according to your context and the public information you have on the network, or all those to which you have not paid enough attention are likely to open a hole in your online security.
Issues such as length (the ideal would be between 12 and 20 characters), originality, the mix of different types of characters (letters, symbols, numbers, etc.), together with the ability to remember that password (either by through mnemonic rules or through some password management system), are some key aspects when determining the feasibility and suitability of a password.
But as we said at the beginning, it is not enough to put a good password once and forget about it! Another issue to take into account in good password management is to change that password as time goes by (ideally, it would be done after a couple of months or three). And do it with each of the different passwords of the platforms or services in which we have accounts, because, for obvious reasons, it is not recommended to use the same password for different services. All this, as we can imagine, requires an investment of time and energy, but it is worth it if we want to build a good online security structure.
