Why Cyber crime is as easy as 1..2..3!
2nd February 2010
Online accounts at risk
The number is up for any who thinks they can count on a simple online password to keep personal details secure. Choosing an easy-to-remember sequence of numbers is so widespread it is making it easy for cyber-criminals to hack into accounts.
Andrew Penman wrote an article in the Daily Mirror on 22 Jan 10 detailing the Top 10 passwords, I had to have a quick look down the list to see how many of them I’m guilty of, and with some relief my usual passwords are not listed, but I bet it still wouldn’t take the Hackers long to crack them!
How well do you fare in the The Top Ten Passwords list:
- 123456
- 12345
- 123456789
- Password
- iloveyou
- princess
- rockyou
- 1234567
- 12345678
- abc123
17 minutes … in that time 1,000 accounts will be hacked! Tips on safe passwords including picking a gibberish word or taking a sentence like ‘this little piggy went to market’ and turning it into ‘tlpWENT2m’ - you should mix upper and lower case letters, avoid short passwords and don’t use the same one for several sites (well now they tell me!!) and finally, never trust anyone else with your passwords to sites such as personal banking!
