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Why passwords continue to fail

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 17 Jan 2017
A study of 10 million passwords reveals thousands of people still rely on easy-to-crack number sequences.
A study of 10 million passwords reveals thousands of people still rely on easy-to-crack number sequences.

The most frequently used password in 2016 was 123456, according to a study by security company, Keeper.

Keeper looked at 10 million passwords which became publically available in the large data breaches of last year (such as MySpace and Yahoo) to see if education and awareness drives have led the public to choose more secure passwords.

The company found this was not the case and many still rely on simple, easy-to-crack passwords. Of the top 10 most used passwords, eight were short numerical sequences.

Of the 10 million, 17% relied on 123456, and 123456789 was the second most commonly used, followed by qwerty.

Keeper says not enough Web site operators take responsibility for password security and enforce best password practices, such as ensuring passwords are longer than six characters.

"This is stunning in light of the fact that today's brute-force cracking software and hardware can unscramble those passwords (six characters or less) in seconds. Web site operators that permit such flimsy protection are either reckless or lazy," says Keeper.

"We can criticise 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 Web site 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."

Keeper says to keep passwords from getting hacked, a variety of characters should be used, dictionary terms should be avoided, and a password manager which generates strong passwords should be used.

Rank

Password

1

123456

2

123456789

3

Qwerty

4

12345678

5

111111

6

1234567890

7

1234567

8

Password

9

123123

10

987654321

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