How to make sure you have a strong password for your online accounts

The modern social media and app ecosystem is standing on a delicate pedestal of passwords they are protected with. More the apps and social media accounts, the more passwords you need to remember. To avoid remembering so many passwords many users resort to callous means of registering for these platforms by choosing passwords like ‘12345’ and ‘hello’. NordPass has released a list of the ‘worst passwords of 2020’ and this list also details how many times a particular password has been exposed.

Here’s a look at the 10 most vulnerable passwords released by NordPass that can be hacked in under a second and the ones you need to stop using as your primary password.

Top 10 most vulnerable passwords

123456: This password has been used by 25,43,285 users and has been exposed 2,35,97,311 times.

123456789: This password has been used by 78,70,694 users and has been exposed 9,61,435 times.

picture1 (new): This password has been used by 3,71,612 users and has been exposed 11,190 times.

password: This password has been used by 3,60,467 users and has been exposed 3,759,315 times.

12345678: This password has been used by 3,22,187 users and has been exposed 29,44,615 times.

111111: This password has been used by 2,30,507 users and has been exposed 31,24,368 times.

123123: This password has been used by 1,89,327 users and has been exposed 22,38,694 times.

12345: This password has been used by 1,89,327 users and has been exposed 22,38,694 times.

1234567890: This password has been used by 1,71,724 users and has been exposed 22,64,884 times.

senha (new): This password has been used by 1,67,728 users and has been exposed 8,213 times.

To have a look at the entire list of top hundred passwords, click here.

How to create a stronger password?

While creating a strong password, you need to remember the following points:

– Make sure your password has a minimum of 12-14 characters. A longer password is even better.
– Include a combination of numbers, capital letters, special characters and lower case letters.
– Make sure it isn’t a dictionary or a combination of dictionary words.
– Try using odd characters and wrong spelling for words. example ‘phnybone’ for funnybone.

What makes a bad password?

– Don’t use your name in any form – first, middle, last name or spelt backwards.
– Don’t use your phone number or digits from your Aadhaar or PAN card as this information is available on a public platform.
– Don’t use the names of your pet or relatives nor birthdays or anniversaries.
– Don’t use names from popular cultures or names of celebrities.
– Any all-numeric password.

A good practice is to write these passwords in a private notebook that only you have access to. You can also make use of password management applications but make sure you download these apps from authentic sources.

from BGR India https://ift.tt/2O3AMTW
via IFTTT