14 DAY TRIAL // A new research shows that Internet users no longer stick with “123456” for their passwords, but instead, they pick some shockingly easy-to-guess words.
CBT Nuggets writes that after analyzing data of 50,000 leaked emails and passwords, it discovered that the most commonly used words for passwords are “love,” “star,” “girl,” and “angel.” Next in line are rock, miss, hell, Mike, and John because yes, using names in your passwords is always a good idea. NOT!
“Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most common names of those hacked are also … well, some of the most common names in America - with Mike/Michael, Chris/Christopher, John/Jonathan, and Dave/David leading the pack,” the research reveals.
“Men were slightly more prone to being hacked, based on our info. And interestingly, those aged 25 to 34 were four times more likely to be hacked than any other demographic. They also happen to be the men most likely to be named Mike, Chris, John, or Dave.”
Yahoo accounts most likely to get hacked
“Michael” or “Mike” was the most commonly used name for passwords, followed by Chris or Christopher, John or Jonathan, Dave or David, and Math or Matthew.
‘So using my name is not a good idea, but what about my username?’ you could ask. That’s a terrible idea. And this study shows that 42 percent of those who had their accounts hacked were actually using the usernames. The most commonly used are variations of names like Amy, Lisa, and Scott.
CBT Nuggets shows that Yahoo accounts are the most likely to be exposed, followed by Hotmail (now called Outlook) and Gmail. Yahoo, however, leads the pack with a shocking 47.95 percent chance of getting hacked.
In case you’re wondering what the best way to protect your account is, it’s essentially a hard-to-guess password coupled with two-factor authentication. If you have a hard time remembering passwords, turning to a password manager is always the best choice because this way there’s absolutely no chance to ever lose a password.
