10 Facts About Passwords to See Before You Make Another One

These 10 Facts About Passwords Prove That Your “Password Protected” Data Isn’t Safe.

Companies are still relying on passwords alone to be an effective security measure – and that is a mistake that could lead to an expensive disaster like a data breach fast. Don’t rely on just a password for data loss prevention. It’s completely outdated. You wouldn’t use an old-fashioned lock to secure your office door – why are you relying on an old-fashioned lock to secure your data? See how password risk has evolved with the help of the Dark Web to learn why you need to upgrade your security from “password protected” to “secure identity and access management solution defended”. Take a look at 10 facts about passwords that will shine a light on why secure identity and access management is a must-have.

Passwords Aren’t Protection

As we’ve demonstrated before, passwords are not an effective security measure, and keeping data and systems safe in the modern threat landscape requires stronger protection. These 10 statistics clearly show that passwords are definitely not the last word in data loss prevention.

• At least 60% of people reuse passwords across multiple sites regularly.
• A terrifying 13% of people use the same password for all passworded accounts and devices.
• An estimated 81% of data breaches are due to poor password security.
• Although 91% of participants in a recent survey understand the risk of password reuse, 59% admitted to doing it anyway.
• 543 million employee credentials for Fortune 1000 companies are circulating on commonly used underground hacking forums, a 29% increase from 2020.
• Unfortunately, 48% of workers use the same passwords in both their personal and work accounts.
• Compromised passwords are responsible for 81% of hacking-related breaches.
• The average person reuses each password 14 times!
• An estimated 49% of employees only add a digit or change a character in their password when they’re required to update it.
• More than 60% of employees use the same password across multiple work and home applications.

People Love to Make Bad Passwords

Most people will choose passwords that can be divided into 24 common combinations, and 49% of users will only change one letter or digit in one of their preferred passwords when required to make a new password. Based on an analysis of the data that we analyzed from Dark Web ID in 2020, the most categories of information used to generate bad passwords in 2020 were Names, Sports, Food, Places, Animals, and Famous People/Characters.

Most passwords originate from these groups:

59% of Americans use a person’s name or family birthday in their passwords
33% include a pet’s name
22% use their own name
Take a look at the Worst Passwords of 2020 to find out what NOT to do.

The Most Common Passwords by Category

Names: maggie
Sports: baseball
Food: cookie
Places: Newyork
Animals: lemonfish
Famous People/Characters: Tigger

 

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