Creating strong passwords is essential, as they are the keys to online accounts. They are needed to accomplish almost anything in today’s digital age, from writing an email to transferring funds via online banking.
You may be tempted to use short, easy-to-remember passwords, but strong passwords safeguard your important data from malicious actors. In this article, you’ll learn the importance of strong passwords and how to create them.
Why Strong Passwords Are Important
These statistics are quite shocking reasons as to why is it important to have secure passwords.
55% Rely on Memory
Bitwarden conducted a survey and found that 55% of people report relying on memory to manage their passwords. What’s more, 32% of people store passwords on paper, 23% on a document on their computer, and 20% in an email.
91% Reuse the Same Password
A survey from LastPass shows that while most are knowledgeable about the risks associated with poor password security, they are not protecting themselves from cyber threats.
- 91% of people know reusing the same password or a variation is a risk, 66% mostly or always do this anyways.
- 80% agree having passwords compromised is concerning, but 48% do not change their password if it’s not required.
- 77% are informed of password protection best practices, and yet 54% rely on memory to keep track of passwords.
81% Of Data Breaches Are Caused by Weak Passwords
Verizon reported in 2022 that 81% of hacking-related data breaches are caused by weak or stolen passwords. They went on to say that, since 2017, there’s an almost 30% increase in stolen credentials, cementing this as one of the most proven methods of gaining access to an organization for the past four years.
45% Of People Change Their Password
According to a Google survey, a surprising number of people choose not to secure their accounts following a data breach. Just 45% of people, about half of all internet users, change their password after a data breach occurs at a place where they have an account.
8 Characters or Less per Password
Cybernews collected data from publicly leaked data breaches and analyzed 15 billion passwords, of which 2 billion were unique. They found that nearly 30% just used 8 characters, and around 20% just 6 characters.
100 Passwords per Person
NordPass shared that the average person has 100 passwords. This number increased by 25% between 2019 and 2020, in which the average number was between 70 to 80.
The Most Common Passwords
What’s more, NordPass wrote a report of the 200 most used passwords. 83% of the world’s most common passwords can be cracked in under a second.
Simple combinations of letters, numbers, and symbols are popular in America, and people tend to draw inspiration from cultural experiences, current events, and lifestyle trends. The top 15 most common passwords in the US are:
- guest
- 123456
- password
- 12345
- a1b2c3
- 123456789
- Password1
- 1234
- abc123
- 12345678
- qwerty
- baseball
- football
- unknown
- soccer
How to Create a Strong Password
Now that you know the importance of strong passwords, here are tips on how to create one!
- Avoid easily guessable passwords.
- Consider using a password generator to generate a new, strong password for each account.
- Consider using a password manager, an encrypted password vault. It will automatically fill in your password when you need to log in.
- Do not use personal information, like your name or birthday.
- Do not reuse passwords. In other words, use a unique password for each account.
- Enable multi-factor authentication to enhance password security further.
- Update passwords every few months.
- Use a mix of numbers, symbols, and upper and lowercase letters.
- Use at least 12 characters. The longer the password, the stronger it is.
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