IT Blog: Passwords

This week the blog is focusing on passwords and how to make them more secure but hopefully in an easier way.

According to Bernard Meyer at cybernews.com the following are the top ten commonly used passwords in 2022:

1. 123456
2. 123456789
3. Qwerty
4. Password
5. 12345
6. Qwerty123
7. 1q2w3e
8. 12345678
9. 111111
10. 1234567890

In a world where we need accounts for nearly everything we do these days, I can understand the attraction of using passwords like these. They follow each other on the keyboard layout hence making it easier to remember.

If you are interested the link above also shows the most commonly used names, sports teams, cities and dates in passwords.

A common theme I have experienced with people and passwords is that they use information relatable to them in their passwords. Using children’s, partners, or pet’s names along with date of birth. Sometimes it's football teams, favourite musicians, or someone famous from tv or movies. The key concern with using this information for your password is that it is commonly shared via social media platforms. Some of us share pictures from our birthday celebrations, sometimes with a shinny badge stating our new age. It also not uncommon for us to share music or movie trailers of something we are interested in. This is all part of the social media experience, and it wouldn’t be the same without it so if we can find a way to create passwords without using this information, we can get the best of both worlds.

So, onto two techniques that can help you create passwords that have complexity to make it difficult enough for hackers to give up and move on.

Choose three random words to create your password

The first technique is ‘three random words’. The idea is that you join three random words together that make up a password that is long enough to make it complex. We still have the challenge of remembering these words so you could use something that you might see every time you go to use your password. If you worked in an office it could be ‘clockcabinettelephone’ or if you are in the house it could be ‘televisioncurtainsgarden'

Consider using symbols or numbers to replace letters but by just adding three words you have already made your password much more secure. The national cyber security centre has more information here.

Try not to sing your passwords too loudly

The second technique is using a memorable song or phrase. Synextra discusses how you can use the first letter of the words for a famous song. An example could be 'ittrlitjfcial' (Is this the real life is this just fantasy caught in a landslide) which is the famous beginning of bohemian rhapsody . One thing to remember when using this password technique is to be aware of your surroundings when typing it in. Some fellow students, colleagues or family members might not appreciate you belting out queen hits every time you login to your accounts. Synextra.co.uk provide some other options you could consider when setting up a password.

Hopefully you found these techniques useful. Next week, I will be discussing the term 'phishing' and what to look out for.

_____________________________________________________________

Read Next 

Click here to read the Phishing blog next