Do you think your passwords are secure? A study that looked at password trends has just been released, and the results show clear patterns in how we choose our passwords – which means they are easy to crack!
The study found that the most popular passwords fall into clear categories:
- Emotional – such as ‘iloveyou’ ‘ihateyou’ ‘lovelove’ or other angry insults
- Brands – ‘ferrari’ ‘playboy’ ‘cocacola’
- Pop culture – ‘pokemon’ ‘superman’ ‘nirvana’
- Football teams (especially Champions League teams) – ‘Liverpool’ ‘Arsenal’ ‘Barcelona’
Password software company Dashlane conducted the study with researchers at Virginia Tech. You can read more about their findings on the Dashlane blog and see the top passwords in each category here.
They also found that ‘password walking’ is extremely popular. This is where the password follows patterns or lines on the keyboard, such as the ever popular ‘qwerty’, moving your finger in a square, or simple strings of numbers like ‘123456789’.
If your password falls into any of these categories then it is more susceptible to be guessed or hacked. If you need some advice for creating new passwords, this blog has an unusual idea that is very secure. If you’re using ‘123456789’, ‘password’ or ‘qwerty’ then please change your password ASAP!
