PC Pals Forum

Technical Help & Discussion => General Tech Discussion, News & Q&A => Topic started by: Clive on January 22, 2010, 19:27

Title: Common passwords 'at risk' from cyberattacks
Post by: Clive on January 22, 2010, 19:27
The most commonly used passwords for social-networking and e-commerce sites have been identified by a data security study.

A list of the 10 most popular passwords people use for their social-networking or e-commerce logins - and hence those most susceptible to cyberattacks - has been revealed in a study carried out by data security expert Imperva.

The study analysed 32 million passwords that were recently exposed in the Rockyou.com breach to come up with a list of those that should be avoided.

"Everyone needs to understand what the combination of poor passwords means in today's world of automated cyber attacks. With only minimal effort, a hacker can gain access to one new account every second," said Imperva's chief technical officer Amichai Shulman.

Some key findings of the study discovered that short and simple passwords leave users at risk of basic forms of cyberattacks known as "brute force attacks".

And nearly 50 per cent of passwords used names, slang, dictionary words or trivial passwords using consecutive digits or keyboard keys.

The 10 most common passwords are:
123456
12345
123456789
Password
iloveyou
princess
rockyou
1234567
12345678
abc123



Title: Re: Common passwords 'at risk' from cyberattacks
Post by: Rik on January 22, 2010, 19:37
They'd struggle a bit more with mine. ;)
Title: Re: Common passwords 'at risk' from cyberattacks
Post by: Clive on January 22, 2010, 20:02
 ;D
Title: Re: Common passwords 'at risk' from cyberattacks
Post by: Simon on January 22, 2010, 22:50
I struggle with mine!   ;D
Title: Re: Common passwords 'at risk' from cyberattacks
Post by: sam on January 23, 2010, 03:58
who needs to bother with a brute force attack, eh?
Title: Re: Common passwords 'at risk' from cyberattacks
Post by: Rik on January 23, 2010, 12:08
I struggle with mine!   ;D

;D Know what you mean. I have an encrypted database with a very strong password to store everything else. If I ever forget that password, I'm in real trouble.
Title: Re: Common passwords 'at risk' from cyberattacks
Post by: Clive on January 25, 2010, 23:02
Top 20 website passwords you shouldn't be using


LINK (http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2010/01/22/top-20-website-passwords/)
Title: Re: Common passwords 'at risk' from cyberattacks
Post by: Rik on January 26, 2010, 09:15
And I don't :).
Title: Re: Common passwords 'at risk' from cyberattacks
Post by: Simon on January 26, 2010, 10:06
Damn!  One of those is to my Swiss bank account.  Oops, did I say that out loud?  :bawl:
Title: Re: Common passwords 'at risk' from cyberattacks
Post by: Rik on January 26, 2010, 10:09
You didn't mention the number though, Simon. Yet...  :devil:
Title: Re: Common passwords 'at risk' from cyberattacks
Post by: Simon on January 26, 2010, 10:19
:hehe: