Top 7 passwords that need to be changed regularly

The observation is clear: the top 10 most commonly used passwords in France can be decrypted in less than a second. Changing the password for each account is necessary to strengthen their security. Here are the top 7 passwords you need to change using password manager.

Despite cybersecurity awareness campaigns, Internet users still choose weak passwords. The proof is that the most commonly used password in France is “123456”. They made little effort to protect their account. However, it only takes a hacker a few seconds to decipher the 10 most commonly used passwords. Faced with an increase in threats, it becomes a priority to change the password on your accounts to make them more secure.

Over the years of presence on the Internet, the Internet user has created hundreds of accounts. At a time when websites and accounts are being hacked one after another, changing your password becomes a good solution.

But where to start? Do you need to find accounts one by one? This process may take time. The best place to start is with your priorities.

E-mail address

Cybercriminals penetrate the security of an Internet user or company through email. Email is at the top of the malware distribution tools.

These hackers then obtain identification data using a phishing technique. It involves luring email recipients to a fake website. Take LinkedIn for example: an Internet user clicks on a link that obviously comes from a company. When entering the site, he is asked to provide sensitive information, such as bank details.

According to a State of the Phish report, cybercriminals are reaching 300,000 and 400,000 phishing attempts per day. This figure only applies to Europe and the Middle East.

Nothing except spam caused business losses of 20 billion. These are unwanted messages that fill your inbox. They not only affect server performance, but also spread malware.

Spam and phishing are just the tip of the iceberg. Other methods threaten email users such as brand theft, professional email hacking, blackmail, conversation interception, account takeover, etc.

For an individual, access to an email address does not in itself pose a threat. On the other hand, this address is often requested for two-factor authentication. Hackers can use email to unlock other, more sensitive accounts.

The best way to protect yourself from these attacks is to raise awareness and educate business users and employees about cybersecurity. Changing and strengthening your password is included in the training.

Bank passwords

The growth of online shopping is being driven by the provision of bank details on many websites. However, this situation increases the risk of data theft by attackers.

Hackers manage to debit large sums from private bank accounts. According to Statistica, Bank fraud in 2022 amounted to 464 million euros. This figure is constantly increasing due to the development of new payment methods. In fact, in 2009 it was 266 million.

The biggest wave of piracy will occur in 2021, when information about 40,000 cards leaked. Victims notice irregular transfers to their account. According to cybersecurity experts, the information comes from the merchant’s website or online bank. During an online purchase, the consumer provides his bank details for payment. According to experts, this is a bad practice due to the vulnerability of shopping sites.

How to prevent these risks? Care should be taken when selecting sales locations. They must use a payment system that complies with current standards. Using an electronic credit card also seems to be a better alternative. When paying, the consumer enters a fictitious disposable card number assigned by his bank.

Changing the password for your online account is also important. To enhance security, the client can also set up two-factor authentication.

Professional accounts

An employee uses several IT tools to perform his daily tasks. Most of these tools require the use of an individual or group account.

Professional accounts can be:

• workstation: local account;
• company social networks;
• professional email: Outlook, Gmail, etc.;
• internal and external applications: CRM, CMS, etc.
• remote access to networks: VPN, SSH, RDP, etc.

Cybercriminals attack account using social engineering, so it is important to change your password. This term refers to all methods of manipulation to obtain sensitive data such as usernames and passwords.

The most famous social engineering techniques are phishing, phishing, etc. Hackers contact employees via email, posing as a trusted website. Their goal is to entice recipients to click on a link leading to a form. Unsuspecting employees could download a malicious attachment or enter sensitive information into a form.

These methods allow you to recover login IDs and passwords. Hackers can steal personal information, internal documents, or even banking information. Sensitive data is being sold on the dark web.

If your account is hacked, the first step is to change the damaged password. If an employee uses the same password on all of their accounts, they must perform a reset on each account.

Dating apps

According to a study conducted by IFOP, 33% of men and 21% of women in France have already used a dating app or site.. This figure has been growing steadily in recent years. In fact, 30% of users admit to being addicted to these platforms.

These accounts contain personal data: bank details, incriminating photos, etc. However, Internet users use a weak password. Even though Internet users put little effort into creating their password, dating sites are also too liberal. The minimum length accepted on some sites is too short.. Others even allow the use of oversimplified passwords.

Cybersecurity experts also note that these sites send the password in cleartext in the confirmation email. They also don’t provide multi-factor authentication.

While waiting for sites to tighten their security, users may want to change their password to a more secure one.

Retail service passwords

When a consumer purchases online, they are often required to create a personal account to confirm their purchase. However, this process involves providing information such as: telephone number, postal address, bank card number, last name, etc.

The account is protected by a password that the consumer enters for each transaction on the site. Is the account really safe?

First, habits of creating bad passwords persist. Internet users do not spend much effort choosing “azerty”, “password”, “123456”, etc. On their side, E-commerce sites are very liberal. 87% of them accept these passwords. Only 6% of online stores require the use of capital letters, numbers and letters.

When hackers gain access to an e-commerce account, they can wipe out their victim’s account. Therefore, you need to change your password to a more secure version.

School bills

Schools and universities use online portals to allow students to manage courses and grades. At first glance, changing your school account password seems less urgent.

However, this account contains sensitive data such as payment accounts, social security number, date of birth.

Cyber ​​attacks are now affecting universities and schools. The education world has also been hit by ransomware. It’s not for nothing that these web portals are a real treasure trove of information.

Healthcare

The healthcare sector is not immune to cybercrime. The latest major attack allowed hackers steal health data of more than 500,000 patients in France. The information is then sold on the dark web. However, they are associated with blood type, date of birth, mailing address, prescribing physician, social security number, etc.

In Finland, thousands of patients received ransom demands for not disclosing their medical data. These phenomena largely justify password strengthening.

Use a password manager to change your password

Faced with overly liberal policies on some sites, Internet users are choosing weak passwords. They do not contain capital letters; some sites allow even 6-character passwords.

To rely on their memory, many users use the same password for other accounts. However, this bad practice makes it easier for hackers.

Today, to secure your account, you need at least 12 characters consisting of numbers, letters, uppercase, lowercase and special characters. It takes pirates centuries to decipher them. But what if you need a unique password for each account?

This is where a password manager comes to the rescue. Belonging Software like NordPass, which is one of the best, offers several features that make life easier for Internet users:

• generator : Those lacking inspiration can count on NordPass to randomly generate characters.
• administrator : Acts as a memorizer in place of the Internet user. Even if the latter manages more than 100 accounts, the tool is able to store this information in an encrypted location.

And thanks to the functionautocomplete, the tool automatically fills in the ID fields. If the user switches, for example, to his smartphone, the information is directly synchronized.