May 4 was World Password Day, a cybersecurity event that encourages digital nomads to assess the security and strength of passwords to ensure the safety of all digital assets and personal data. The livelihood of our digital lives is fostered by good online hygiene, which begins with proper password management. Ultimately, Password Day is every day —so here are some insights and tips.
Unsafe passwords are the weakest link between the user and the keyboard
Bitdefender telemetry puts these risks into perspective. An analysis of our leaks database shows exposed user passwords number up to 28 billion, 98% of which were in plain text alongside the users’ email addresses.
Our top five most common leaked passwords are undeniably the most easily recognized globally:
- ‘123456’
- ‘qwerty’
- ‘111111’
- ‘password’
- ‘12345678’
Our leaks database also revealed some statistics regarding passwords that users consider safe (but aren’t) containing letter and number combinations:
- ‘abc133’ – 2.7 million
- ‘password1’ – 2.4 million
- ‘1q2w3e4r5t’ – 1.3 million
- ‘123456a’ – 1.2 million
Without a doubt, poor password choice is a global issue, with users opting for convenience over digital security by using easy-to-remember passwords that lack special characters, phrases and capital letters or the required password length (16+ characters).
A compromised password poses a threat to the personal security of the individuals and their workplace, as it lets malicious actors infiltrate accounts and maximize their damage and profit. Data found in online accounts is highly valuable for cyber crooks, who are always perfecting their techniques to take over user accounts via data breaches and credential-stuffing attacks.
‘Keep it secret, keep it safe’
Passwords should be kept a secret, as they allow the holder to access highly sensitive data and financial information.
Just like Gandalf urges Frodo to hide the Ring and keep it safe in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings, we too, as digital nomads, should be on a critical mission to keep our passwords a secret at all costs.
You can start with these easy steps:
- Use unique passwords for all of your online accounts and include a combination of letters (upper and lowercase), numbers and symbols. Why? The more complex the password, the harder it is for cybercriminals to attempt to crack it.
- Review your passwords and update any non-compliant credentials.
- Use at least 16 characters when choosing a new password.
- Never reuse old passwords (even if you deleted the account)
- Immediately change the password for any account if your information and credentials were part of a data breach.
- Enable additional layers of security with 2FA and MFA whenever available.
How Bitdefender can help
If you’re struggling to create unique and complex passwords for all your online accounts, we’ve got you covered. Add Bitdefender Password Manager to your digital toolkit and say goodbye to password security oversights.
When you subscribe to our multi-platform tool, you get the strongest known cryptographic algorithms to help you secure and manage all of your online passwords and the possibility to create complex passwords that meet the highest security standards on all major operating systems.
You can also opt for a digital identity protection tool to ensure 24/7 data breach and leak monitoring so you can close down privacy risks and safeguard your identity.