Lame Web Passwords Can Be Cracked In Seconds

Almost a fifth of internet users are protecting their money and online identities with passwords that could be cracked within seconds.

One in five internet surfers believe the code ‘123456’ is a huge deterrent to hackers.

Computer users are also predictable – the top 25 lame passwords made up half of the 10 million analysed by security experts Keeper.

“Any of the top-ranking passwords are useless as a hacker can crack them in a few seconds,2 said a Keeper spokesman.

The research revealed lazy passwords are also easy to break.

“People are finding ways to make long passwords insecure,” said the spokesman. “The password ‘zxcvbnm’ looks good, but it’s the six consecutive alphabet keys on the bottom row of a qwerty keyboard.”

How to set a strong password

The company suggests following three rules to set the best passwords:

• Mix numbers, upper and lower case letters and special characters
• Bin any word in the dictionary as hackers will have lots of dictionaries for different languages in their cracking database
• Try a password manager app as they generate stronger passwords that do not have to be remembered

Keeper also blamed web site operators for not demanding users to set stronger passwords.

“Four of the top 10 passwords on the list – and seven of the top 15 – are six characters or shorter. This is stunning as brute-force cracking software and hardware can unscramble those passwords in seconds. Website operators that permit such flimsy protection are either reckless or lazy,” said Keeper CEO Darren Guccione.

“We can criticize all we want about the chronic failure of users to employ strong passwords. After all, it’s in the user’s best interests to do so. But the bigger responsibility lies with website owners who fail to enforce the most basic password complexity policies. It isn’t hard to do, but the list makes it clear that many still don’t bother.”

Worst Common Passwords 2016

Source: Keeper