Published 14:31 IST, April 22nd 2019
Cyber study reveals 'millions of users have 123456, 1111111, 123456789 easy-to-guess passwords which lead to danger of being exploited'. Read full list here
A study by UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) uncovered the gaps in cyber-knowledge that may leave people in danger of being exploited.
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A study by UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) uncovered the gaps in cyber-knowledge that may leave people in danger of being exploited. The anylisis says that millions of people are still using easy-to-guess passwords like “123456” and “qwerty” on sensitive accounts which can be dangerous.
The NCSC said people should string three random but memorable words together to use as a strong password.
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For its first cyber-survey, the NCSC analysed public databases of breached accounts to see which words, phrases and strings people used:
- Top of the list was 123456, appearing in more than 23 million passwords
- The second-most popular string, 123456789, was not much harder to crack
- Others in the top five included “qwerty”, “password” and 1111111
- The most common name to be used in passwords was Ashley, followed by Michael, Daniel, Jessica and Charlie, the report found
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When it comes to Premier League football teams in guessable passwords, Liverpool are champions and Chelsea are second. Blink-182 topped the charts of music acts.
People who use well-known words or names for a password put themselves people at risk of being hacked, said Ian Levy, technical director of the NCSC.
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“Nobody should protect sensitive data with something that can be guessed, like their first name, local football team or favourite band,” he said.
(With inputs from PTI)
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14:31 IST, April 22nd 2019