Probably you might have heard about keeping hilariously simple passwords. Probably you have kept a password like that in the past, or maybe you still have a password than any average Joe can guess!
A list of weak passwords recently released by the New South Wales Police and Australian Government might surprise you how simple people’s passwords can be. No wonder scammers have an easy time tricking these people.
While ‘123456’, ‘password’, and ‘12345’ are among the top three weak passwords in the list, others such as ‘zaq1zaq1’, include ‘login’, ‘admin’, ‘abc123’, ‘12345678’, ‘qwerty’, ‘football’, and ‘princess’.
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The list consists of 25 most common passwords published by Australian Government in a statement, warned a weak password does not achieve its desired effect – to secure your device.
According to the statement, weak passwords are made up of ‘predictable words, sequential numbers, and personal information’ and can be easily cracked within minutes. The list is compiled of data collected by SplashData, using over five million password combinations, says a Daily Mail report.
How to avoid weak passwords? It is advisable to keep a passphrase. Simply string a number of easy to remember words together, one example given was ‘applepiemonkey’. You can combine this passphrase with special characters or use upper/lower caps if a website asks you to do so.