Despite advice and recommendations, internet users seem to underestimate the issue of online password vulnerability. This is demonstrated by research revealing the most-used code: incredibly, it’s 123456.
This was highlighted by Imperva, a cybersecurity company that has compiled a list of the most used passwords in the United States. The opportunity arose a few weeks ago when 32 million passwords entrusted to Rock You, a company providing software solutions for Facebook and other social networks, were leaked online. This slip-up revealed how easily most accounts can be compromised and, on a larger scale, how much laziness and lack of creativity goes into choosing a strong password.
As mentioned, the sequence “123456” tops the list, followed by “12345” and a longer “123456789”. After the numerical strings, we move to words, which surprisingly don’t offer much more security or imagination: from the classic “password,” to “princess,” then “iloveyou” and “qwerty,” ending with “abc123”.
The security advice regularly distributed by IT companies, online service providers, consumer protection associations, and home banking technicians seems to have been in vain. It appears that the reason users opt for overly weak passwords is a motivation as trivial as it is dangerous: the fear of forgetting login credentials leads them to choose obvious but extremely weak passwords.
The concern that one’s account, even a banking one, might be compromised therefore takes a backseat to the fear of forgetting. Cybercriminals are well aware of this, however, and according to the Imperva research, they can easily steal valuable data with little effort.
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