Millions of people use 123456 as a password, according to a security study

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AFP

According to a study, millions of people use passwords that are easy to guess for sensitive accounts.

The analysis by the National Cyber ​​Security Center (NCSC) of the United Kingdom revealed that 123456 was the most used password for hacked accounts.

The study uncovered gaps in cyber-knowledge that could put people at risk of being exploited.

The NCSC said people should associate three random but memorable words to use as a strong password.

Sensitive data

For its first online survey, the NCSC analyzed public databases of offending accounts to determine the words, phrases and strings used by users.

123456 was at the top of the list with more than 23 million passwords. The second most popular channel, 123456789, was not much harder to crack, while the other top five channels included "qwerty", "password" and 1111111.

The most common name used in passwords was Ashley, followed by Michael, Daniel, Jessica, and Charlie.

For Premier League football teams with predictable passwords, Liverpool is champion and Chelsea is second. Blink-182 was at the top of the charts of musical acts.

People who use words or names known as passwords are at risk for hacking, said Dr. Ian Levy, Technical Director of NCSC.

"Nobody should protect sensitive data with anything to guess, like his name, his local football team or his favorite group," he said.

Hard to guess

The NCSC study also surveyed people about their safety habits and fears.

It turns out that 42% of respondents expect to lose money because of an online fraud and that only 15% feel confident knowing enough to protect themselves online.

It was found that less than half of the respondents used a separate, hard-to-guess password for their primary email account.

Security expert Troy Hunt, who runs a database of hacked accounts, said choosing a good password was the "most important check" on people's online security.

"We have not usually done a very good job as individuals or organizations asking us to register with them," he said.

Letting people know what passwords were widely used should encourage users to make better choices, he said.

The survey was published in anticipation of the NCSC Cyber ​​UK conference to be held in Glasgow on April 24th and 25th.