World Password Day: Some of the world’s most vulnerable passwords; does it include yours?

• 123456, 1234, admin, ubnt and 12345 are the five most attempted passwords used by cyber criminals to enter the Mumbai cloud server honeypot

Sophos, a global leader in network and endpoint security, recently announced the findings of its report, ‘Exposed: Cyberattacks on Cloud Honeypots’, which reveals that ‘123456’ was the most attempted login password in the Mumbai cloud server honeypot that saw more than 1,376 login attempts by cyber attackers within a span of 30 days. 

The honeypots were setup in 10 of the most popular Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centres in the world, including California, Frankfurt, Ireland, London, Mumbai, Ohio, Paris, Sao Paulo, Singapore, and Sydney over a 30-day period. A honeypot is a system intended to mimic likely targets of cyber attackers, so that security researchers can monitor cybercriminal behaviours. 

“Passwords are an important aspect of computer security – they are the front line of protection for user accounts in a very wide variety of services and systems. Unfortunately, people are not changing factory default passwords, which cybercriminals are counting on to carry out their attacks. Building strong, unique passwords and using a password manager to keep track of them is a best security practice everyone should use in this digital age,” said Sophos India and SAARC Managing Director Sales Sunil Sharma.

World Password Day is observed on 2 May every year to raise awareness on the criticality of using strong passwords. Sophos recommends the following four tips for building a stronger password.

Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA): Enable multi-factor authentication wherever possible. This adds an additional layer of protection against someone trying to access personal accounts.

 

• Use complex passcodes for devices: It’s not just passwords for email addresses and social media accounts that need to be secure. Ensure that the login for laptops and mobile phones also have complex passcodes.
• Use a password manager: To give passwords the best possible chance of not appearing on Pwned Passwords, use a properly secured password manager that will create and store secure passwords.
• Learn how to choose proper passwords: Most of people end up with dozens of online accounts and have to create passwords all the time. Even with a password manager, create one really excellent password is needed to lock the central ‘password vault’. 
• Use unique passwords for online banking: Sensitive accounts need special passwords. This includes banking and other accounts where financial data is accessed and stored.