A new survey shows that Internet users are now leaving behind the password “123456” but continue to use easy words as passwords.
CBT Nuggets analyzed data from 50,000 leaked emails and passwords and discovered that the most commonly used words as passwords are: “love,” “star,” “rock,” “miss,” “hell,” “Mike,” “John,” “girl,” and “angel.”
“Men were slightly more prone to hacking, based on our information. And interestingly, people aged 25 to 34 were four times more likely to be hacked than any other age group.”
The names most commonly used as passwords were “Michael” or “Mike,” “Chris” or “Christopher,” “John” or “Jonathan,” “Dave” and “David,” and “Math” or “Matthew.”
The study shows that 42% of people whose accounts were compromised used usernames as passwords.
But which company continues to hold the lead with the most hacked accounts?
CBT Nuggets reports that Yahoo accounts are much more likely to be compromised, followed by Hotmail (now called Outlook) and Gmail. Yahoo, however, leads the list with a 47.95 percent higher chance of your account being compromised.
In case you're wondering what the best way to protect your account is:
A password that hackers can't guess, along with using two-factor authentication. Of course, using a reliable password manager will help if you don't remember complex passwords. Prefer an offline password manager (KeePass: free and reliable), as it offers more security.
