I don’t want to tempt fate here, but I think most of us take a similar approach to online passwords.
You pick one that works, and then you start playing around with little variations on it. A capital letter here, a cheeky full-stop there, and then you hope that no hacker / fraudster thinks you’re worth having a go at.
Well, according to the Telegraph, we’re lazy with passwords because “the typical person has 26 online log-ins – with the associated passwords and other ID” – and only the most dedicated are cooking up 26 different locks to pick.
Shall we look at what the top 10 passwords are? Buckle up:
- password
- 123456
- 12345678
- 1234
- qwerty
- 12345
- dragon
- pussy
- baseball
- football
If you’re still using ‘password’ you’re probably beyond saving, but who the hell is using ‘pussy’?
I tried Donald Trump’s Twitter account without luck, so there goes my guess.
So what do the security experts say we should do?
Eight characters is the ideal minimum for passwords – try using short, random words with a combination of lower case and upper case letters and a sprinkling of numbers and symbols.
Bruce Schneier, an American cryptographer and computer security professional, suggested making a memorable sentence into a password.
For example, “no man is an island” could become “N0mI5aI” and “two wrongs don’t make a right” could be “2Wdm1R”.
Sounds like a coded WhatsApp message a teen might send to stop their parents from finding out what they’re up to.
In my day you just had to delete your Internet browsing history – oh how the times have changed.
It’s a jungle out there, so get professionals like NEWORDER on your side – the hacking and industrial espionage protection experts – and batten down the hatches.
Oh, and if your password is ‘pussy’ you should definitely clear your browser history right now because there’s a 100% chance it’s a mess.
[source:telegraph]
