New York Times Reports “Simple Passwords Remain Popular, Despite Risk of Hacking”
In July of 2009 New Signature published a post on network security (Network Security: Passwords vs. Passphrases) where we pushed for the use of more complex passwords and the use of passphrases to make this easier for the average person to use and remember. This morning (January 20, 2010) the New York Times published an article entitled “If Your Password Is 123456, Just Make It HackMe“. The article shows that weak passwords continue to be a substantial problem.
“According to a new analysis, one out of five Web users still decides to leave the digital equivalent of a key under the doormat: they choose a simple, easily guessed password like ‘abc123,’ ‘iloveyou’ or even ‘password’ to protect their data.”
In a recent study of 32 million passwords, “Imperva found that nearly 1 percent of the 32 million people it studied had used ’123456′ as a password. The second-most-popular password was ’12345′. Others in the top 20 included ‘qwerty’, ‘abc123′ and ‘princess.’” This means that hackers can easily break into many accounts just by trying the most common passwords. As the article points out, “Because of the prevalence of fast computers and speedy networks, hackers can fire off thousands of password guesses per minute.”
New Signature works with our clients to continually improve network security. We always recommend the following three basic steps:
- Password complexity requirement
- Password length requirements
- Password expiration requirements
The use of passphrases can make longer passwords easier to remember and therefore enable a substantial increase in network security. Contact us today to learn more and to find out how we can help you improve your network security.