The observation is clear: the ten most frequently used passwords in France can be decrypted in less than a second. To increase security, it is necessary to change the password for each account. Here are the top 7 passwords that need to be changed using a Password manager.
Despite cybersecurity awareness campaigns, internet users still choose weak passwords. The proof is that the most commonly used password in France is “123456”. They make little effort to secure their account. However, it only takes a hacker a few seconds to decrypt the ten most commonly used passwords. With the increase in threats, changing the password of your accounts to make them more robust is becoming a priority.
Use NordPass for secure password management. The best password manager on the market ensures easy account protection.
After years of online presence, an internet user has created hundreds of accounts. In an era where websites and accounts are being hacked one after another, changing your password is a good solution.
But where should I start? Do you need to find the accounts individually? This process may take some time. It’s best to start with priorities.
Email address
Cybercriminals use email to penetrate an Internet user’s or company’s security system. Email is at the forefront of malware distribution tools.
These hackers then use the phishing method to obtain identification data. The idea is to lure email recipients to a fake website. Let’s take the example of LinkedIn: The Internet user clicks on a link that apparently comes from the company. Once on the website, he is asked to provide confidential information such as bank details.
According to the State of the Phish report, cybercriminals reach in between 300,000 and 400,000 phishing attempts per day. This number only applies to Europe and the Middle East.
Nothing but Spam caused 20 billion losses to companies. These are unwanted messages that flood the inbox. They not only affect server performance but also spread malware.
Spam and phishing are just the tip of the iceberg. Other practices put email users at risk, such as brand impersonation, professional email compromise, extortion, conversation theft, account takeover, etc.
Access to an email address does not in itself pose any danger to the individual. On the other hand, this address is often requested for two-factor authentication. Hackers can use the email to unlock other, more sensitive accounts.
The best way to protect against these attacks is to raise awareness and educate business users and employees on cybersecurity. Changing and strengthening your password is included in the training.
Banking passwords
The rise of online shopping encourages the provision of banking details on many websites. However, this situation increases the risk of data theft by malicious individuals.
Hackers manage to withdraw large amounts of money from individuals’ bank accounts. According to Statista Bank fraud amounted to 464 million euros in 2022. This number is constantly increasing due to the development of new payment methods. In fact, in 2009 there were 266 million.
The biggest wave of piracy dates back to 2021 Information about 40,000 cards is leaked. Victims notice irregular transfers to their account. According to cybersecurity experts, the information comes from a merchant site or an online bank. When purchasing online, the consumer provides their bank details for payment. In the eyes of experts, this is bad practice due to the vulnerability of merchant sites.
How can these risks be prevented? Caution is advised when selecting sales locations. You must use a payment system that meets current standards. Using the e-credit card also seems to be a better alternative. When paying, the consumer enters a fictitious one-time card number issued by his bank.
It is also important to change your online account password. To increase security, the customer can also set up two-factor authentication.
Professional accounts
An employee uses multiple IT tools to complete their daily tasks. Most of these tools require the use of an individual or team account.
Professional accounts can be:
- Workplace: local account;
- company social networks;
- Professional email: Outlook, Gmail, etc. ;
- internal and external applications: CRM, CMS, etc.
- Remote access to networks: VPN, SSH, RDP, etc.
Cybercriminals attack an account through social engineeringTherefore, it is important to change your password. This term refers to all manipulation techniques used to obtain confidential data such as user names and passwords.
The most famous social engineering techniques are phishing, phishing, etc. Hackers contact employees via email by impersonating a reliable website. Your goal is to encourage recipients to click on a link that leads to a form. Unsuspecting employees can download a malicious attachment or enter sensitive information into a form.
You can use these techniques to recover login IDs and passwords. Hackers can steal private information, internal documents or even banking information. Sensitive data is sold on the dark web.
If an account is hacked, the first instinct is to change the compromised password. If the employee uses the same password on all of their accounts, they must perform the reset on each account.
Dating apps
According to a study by IFOP 33% of men and 21% of women in France have used a dating app or website. This number has steadily increased in recent years. In fact, 30% of users admit that they are addicted to these platforms.
These accounts contain personal data: banking details, compromising photos, etc. However, Internet users use a weak password. Even though Internet users make little effort to create their password, dating sites are also too revealing. The minimum length accepted on some sites is too short. Others even allow the use of overly simple passwords.
Cybersecurity experts also point out that these websites send the password in plain text in a verification email. They also don’t offer multi-factor authentication.
While users wait for websites to take measures to increase security, they can change their password to a more robust password.
Retail Services Passwords
When a consumer purchases online, they are often required to create a personal account to confirm their purchase. However, this process involves providing information such as telephone number, postal address, bank card number, last name, etc.
The account is protected by a password that the consumer enters with each transaction on the website. Is the account really secure?
First, bad password creation habits persist. Internet users have little effort when choosing “azerty”, “password”, “123456”, etc. At your side, E-commerce websites are very permissive. 87% of them accept these passwords. Only 6% of online shops require upper and lower case letters as well as numbers and letters.
When hackers access an e-commerce account, they can drain their victim’s account. Therefore, you need to change your password to a more robust version.
School accounts
Schools and universities use online portals to allow students to manage courses and grades. On the surface, changing a school account password seems less urgent.
However, this account contains sensitive data such as payment accounts, social security number, date of birth.
Cyber attacks now also affect universities and schools. The education sector is also affected by ransomware. For good reason, these web portals are a veritable source of information.
Healthcare
The healthcare sector is not immune to cybercrime. The recent major attack enabled hackers to do this Stealing the health data of more than 500,000 patients in France. The information is then sold on the dark web. However, they refer to blood type, date of birth, mailing address, prescriber, social security number, etc.
In Finland, thousands of patients received a ransom note for not disclosing their medical information. These phenomena largely justify strengthening the password.
Use a password manager to change your password
Given the overly permissive policies of certain websites, Internet users choose weak passwords. They do not contain capital letters, some websites even allow a 6-character password.
To rely on their memory, many users use the same password for other accounts. However, this bad practice makes things easier for hackers.
Nowadays, to protect an account, you need at least 12 characters consisting of numbers, letters, uppercase letters, lowercase letters and special characters. It takes pirates centuries to decipher them. But what if you need a unique password for each account?
This is where a password manager comes into play. Software like NordPass, one of the best, offers several features that make life easier for Internet users:
- generator : If you don’t have inspiration, you can rely on NordPass to randomly generate characters.
- Administrator : It takes on the role of memorizer instead of internet user. Even if it manages more than 100 accounts, the tool is able to store this information in an encrypted area.
And thanks to the function ofautocomplete, the tool automatically fills in the identifier fields. For example, if the user switches to their smartphone, the information is immediately available synchronized.