The most popular passwords in the world have not yet been altered in decades. Thus, they remain the worst passwords you can set for your online accounts.
Examples of ill-conceived passwords include 123456, password, and qwerty, which is the set of the first 6 alphabets on a laptop or smartphone keyboard. Some other styles of similar patterned passwords include 123456789, 111111, and 1q2w3e.
Most people use their names, their partner’s names, their pet’s names, their date of birth, their partner’s date of birth, their place of birth, their wedding anniversary date, their favorite color. And their favorite music band, sports, or food, etc., All of which are straightforward to guess, especially if the one trying to hack your accounts is someone who knows this basic information about you.
The following is a list of 100 passwords most frequently discovered in data breach-related dark web listings and have been gathered from various sources.
It is better to avoid using these passwords, and if you already are using one of these or something similar, it’s advised to change them immediately.
Making solid and reliable passwords only requires a small amount of work yet saves you from a lot of future hassle.
For example, you can create 24 strong, difficult-to-guess, yet simple-to-remember passwords by stringing together only 4 random words of at least five characters.
The four central tenets of solid passwords are as follows:
Yet, if there are more than 20 characters, you would easily be safe using only lowercase letters.
Despite being lengthy and including upper case letters and numbers, “PrettyAmanda12” is still not considered a strong password.
Two more steps, while somewhat uncomfortable, are highly advised and would significantly increase the security of your accounts. These include:
The use of a VPN service prevents external attacks since neither the owner of the public WiFinor the hacker is able to know the site you are connecting to.
The idea behind a VPN is that since it is running on both the private network and your PC, you will be included in the approved users and be able to join successfully.
Your communication would be encrypted now and can be seen only by the provider of the VPN services when utilizing a public internet connection.
Therefore, until you have spyware or key-logging software preinstalled, which is recording everything you enter on that keyboard, the data is entirely secure.
The information that is tracked and collected and the information that doesn’t rely on the network’s policies, yet you must remember that once joined, you are still on a private network.
It all boils down to your trust in the company providing the VPN services. It’s crucial to feel secure since, in the end, it would be the sole network you can rely on, regardless of whatever one you are now connected to.
In this case, PureVPN is a beneficial VPN provider. When you are connected to the internet, PureVPN makes sure you are completely anonymous, i.e., on an AES 256-bit encrypted network and highly protected.
Conclusion
Using a VPN service is quite beneficial while being connected to unsafe networks. It is possible for anybody with the necessary technological skills to intercept your traffic and steal critical data, yet there is more to this picture.
It is recommended to utilize a VPN in addition to turning on 2FA.