How easily hackable are you?
With most of the modern activities going online today – be it banking, shopping, social media and more – most of us enter passwords for different types of accounts on a daily basis.
Cybersecurity firm Lookout reported that an average of 80% of consumers’ email has been leaked to the dark web at some point.
The firm released its list of the top 10 most common passwords found on the dark web:
- 123456
- 123456789
- Qwerty
- Password
- 12345
- 12345678
- 111111
- 1234567
- 123123
- qwerty123
If any of the passwords on this list sound familiar to you, unfortunately, it’s easiest for cybercriminals to hack into your account.
Digital security company Norton says more than 2 out of 3 people recycle the same password across multiple accounts online.
The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), a non-profit organization set up to assist victims of identity-related crimes, released its annual data breach report for 2021.
According to the report, there were 1,862 data breaches in 2021, a record high of 68% increase in breaches from 2020. The report found that the 2021 data breaches marked a 23% increase from the previous all-time high for a year set in 2017. With 1,506 violations.
“In 2021, we saw a change in the identity crime sector,” said Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center. “Many people found themselves among criminals and organizations that hold consumer information. We can look forward to 2021 as the year we moved from an era of identity theft to identity fraud. The number of breaches in 2021 is alarming. Many of the cyberattacks that were conducted were highly sophisticated and complex, requiring aggressive protection to prevent. If those defenses failed, often we saw an insufficient level of transparency for consumers to protect themselves from identity fraud is.”
The study found that there were more cyber-attack-related agreements in 2021 (1,603) than the total data agreements in 2020 (1,108).
“There is no reason to believe that the level of data compromise will suddenly drop in 2022,” say experts. “As organizations of all sizes struggle to protect the data they hold, it is essential that everyone practices good cyber-hygiene to protect themselves and their loved ones from these crimes.”
To make sure your online accounts remain secure and untraceable, digital security company Norton offers these tips for creating the strongest passwords:
- No Personal Information: Do not include references to personal information such as names, birthdays, addresses or phone numbers.
- Combine letters, numbers and symbols: A variety of random characters, numbers, and letters make passwords more complex.
- Consider password length: At least 16 characters must be used to reduce the chances of falling victim to a data breach or cyber attack.
- No repeated passwords: Reusing passwords for different accounts leaves you vulnerable to credential stuffing attacks frequently used by cybercriminals.
- Don’t use real words: Hackers use malicious programs that can process every word found in a dictionary to crack the password. Do not use proper nouns or other standalone dictionary words.
