Computer viruses/malware, phishing and social media contribute too many of the hacks of computer systems. But many of the hacks are made easy by passwords that should never be used. Untrained employees are the easiest entrée into your computer systems. The following are some of worst and most common passwords:
1. 123456
2. 123456789
3. qwerty
4. 12345678
5. 111111
6. 1234567890
7. 1234567
8. password
9. 123123
10. 987654321
11. qwertyuiop
12. mynoob
13. 123321
14. 666666
15. 18atcskd2w
16. 7777777
17. 1q2w3e4r
18. 654321
19. 555555
20. 3rjs1la7qe
21. google
22. 1q2w3e4r5t
23. 123qwe
24. zxcvbnm
25. 1q2w3e
Guess what, the cybercriminal will try the above passwords 1st. There is no need to help the cybercriminal by using one of these common passwords. After that for $1000 a hacker can obtain a computer that can test over a billion passwords per second.
The length of the password is also important. It is estimated that Nine-character passwords take five days to break, 10-character words take four months, and 11-character passwords take 10 years. And a 12 character password takes 200 years to break by brute force.
The other sin is to use the same password for many different systems both personal and work. Cybercriminals count on that.
Once you start using a different 12 character password for every system you have you should invest in a password management tool. To see According consumersadvocate.org recommendations for password managers, click on:
2017 10 Best Password Managers