As 2018 comes to a close The ., password manager platform Dashlane announced its annual list of “Worst Password Offenders.” list includes individuals, government organizations (The Pentagon!), companies, and academic institutions
Here are some of the worst password mistakes of 2018:
1. Kanye West: The famous singer made headlines this year when he was seen unlocking iPhone with the passcode '000000' during his infamous White House meeting. Having a weak passcode is dangerous enough, but revealing that passcode to a room full of television cameras was one of the worst moves he could have made.
2. The Pentagon: Unfortunately, the Department of Defense ranks second on the list this year. According to the results of an audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), many of the Pentagon’s systems were found to have cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Among the concerns that emerged from the audits was that the GAO was able to guess admin passwords in just nine seconds. In addition, the software for multiple weapons systems is protected by default passwords that anyone could find through a Google Search.
6. Texas: Cyber blunders are quite common in Texas. The Lone Star State left over 14 million voter records exposed on a server that wasn't password-. The sensitive personal information of 77% of the state's registered voters was available for any malicious user to steal.
7. White House: Last year, two White House officials earned a spot on the list: President Trump took home the title of Worst Password of 2017 after a series of cyber blunders, while Sean Spicer is a worthy contender for tweeting his password. This year, the baton was passed to another staffer who made the mistake of writing down his login and emailpassword on the official White House stationery. And as if that weren't enough, he forgot the document at a bus stop in Washington, D.C. No hope….
Dashlane emphasized that cybersecurity depends on password security.
"Passwords are the first line of defense against cyberattacks. Weak passwords, reused passwords, and poor password management can easily put our sensitive information at risk," said Emmanuel Schalit, CEO of Dashlane.
Unfortunately, password mismanagement is on the rise. It has been found that the average user has 200 digital accounts that require a password – a number expected to increase to 400 accounts in the next five years.
