Don't Limit Your Online Protection with Dumb Passwords

You won’t believe the passwords that some people STILL use. Microsoft has finally put its foot down—even though most people won’t even know it unless they start to create a dumb password. In May 2016, Microsoft started using a system that would reject password requests—when opening a new account or creating a new password—that had a high likelihood of being guessed, hacked, or stolen. And maybe Microsoft is too polite to say it, but what they also meant was they’d reject passwords that were too dumb to believe. Microsoft, which has millions of customers who have various types of online accounts, stay on top of the news of network hacks and breaches. Over the years they have collected a trove of information on the passwords most broken—which oftentimes are also the passwords most commonly used by us. So, Microsoft decided to help lessen the chances of being a hack attack victim by, at a minimum, not allowing them to create bad/dumb/simple/are-you-kidding me? passwords. They created a list of the passwords that have been breached too often and that people shouldn’t be using anymore. Better than that, when a customer starts creating a new Microsoft password, they “reject” password list will be in the background, declining a bad request. The bad-password master list will be continually updated based on new insights…probably from passwords that were hacked. But, security experts say, at least we’re getting better—as a whole—when it comes to creating good, not easy-to-break, passwords. Why the improvement? Perhaps it’s all the news of several million-customer hacks (and password thefts) on websites like LinkedIn and Yahoo to get everyone’s attention. You may find this hard to believe, but over the past few years, the two most used passwords ever have remained at the top of the list: It’s not only weak passwords that are a problem. It is also bad password management. Go down this list of questions and see if you’re “violating” some of the most basic password (and password usage) rules. If so, you’re limiting your protection online: If you answered “yes” to a few of these habits, at least you should know that you’re not alone. Most people follow old habitual patterns when they update passwords, and they fall into the same type of routine when creating new ones. And that’s what hackers count on. Hackers are attacking ten million accounts every day, according to Microsoft. If those hackers aren’t stopped or at least slowed by tough passwords, they WILL increase their attacks. Imagine for a second you need to provide a key to your home so your neighbor could feed your cat—where would you put it? Think to yourself the most obvious (and worst) place to hide it might be—one where the neighborhood thief would look, if he came prowling around? Here are the bad choices: That’s how you need to look at your passwords. Are yours too easy to discover by someone who might try to find the passwords to your accounts and your personal affairs online? A few years ago LinkedIn suffered a major hack attack and millions of usernames and passwords were stolen and eventually released on the Internet. A look at those passwords revealed to many that security experts labeled, with no apologies, the dumbest passwords a person can use: Yup. Not very imaginative nor cyber smart. Here are a few more of the most popular passwords that people use. Keep in mind, this isn’t a list of the worst passwords: it’s a list of the most commonly used ones. Because they’re so prevalent, hackers can, with relative ease, use automation to crack into any account that uses one, or even a variation of it. Most likely, you’re in a routine and maybe one day your weaker passwords will be cracked by a hacker program. That’s preventable. Change your passwords! Look into password manager programs such as 1Password , NordPass , and Dashlane that help you create strong unique passwords for each site/account, keeps track of your passwords, all while keeping them safe.