10 Facts about Passwords that You’ll Want to See

July 15, 2021 By brycecyber0101 Comments are Off

These 10 Facts About Passwords Illustrate the Danger of Password Pitfalls

One of any company’s most precious commodities is its passwords. When cybercriminals get one through any means including phishing, they have a key to your front door – and right to the heart of your business if they snatch a privileged credential. Bad passwords and exposed passwords notch up the risk of a disaster – and so does poor password hygiene. Password risk is a real minefield for businesses. Here are 10 facts about passwords that you’ll want to see before adding a new secure identity and access management solution. 

10 More Facts about Passwords That You’ll Want to See 

  1. Microsoft says that 99.9% of password-based threats can be stopped with multifactor authentication. 
  2. Credentials were the top type of information stolen in data breaches worldwide in 2020. 
  3. Approximately 60% of data breaches involve improper use of credentials. 
  4. Over 40% of respondents in a 2020 study said that their organization had been compromised because of a bad, stolen or cracked password.   
  5. An overwhelming majority of passwords fit into one of 20 common categories. 
  6. More than 40% of organizations rely on sticky notes for password management. 
  7. About three-quarters of employees reuse work passwords for their personal accounts 
  8.  82% of workers admitted sometimes reusing the same passwords and credentials.
  9. An estimated 60% of passwords that appeared in more than one breach in 2020 were recycled or reused. 
  10. Almost 25% of breaches were the result of credential stuffing in 2020. 

As we saw in the 10 more facts about passwords list above, employees will choose memorability over security when making a password every time. That’s why we thought you’d probably aslo want to see these facts about how bad ppasswords are born.

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 and 22% use their own name. Oh, and the average user reuses that bad password about 14 times! 

The Most Common Passwords by Category

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

Top 20 Most Common Passwords Found on the Dark Web in 2020

  1. 123456
  2. password
  3. 12345678
  4. 12341234
  5. 1asdasdasdasd
  6. Qwerty123
  7. Password1
  8. 123456789
  9. Qwerty1
  10. :12345678secret
  11. Abc123
  12. 111111
  13. stratfor
  14. lemonfish
  15. sunshine
  16. 123123123
  17. 1234567890
  18. Password123
  19. 123123
  20. 1234567

Don’t Let Password Shenanigans Be Your Security Downfall with Passly

Now that you’ve absorbed 10 facts about passwords, you’re probably wondering how you can increase password security without breaking the bank. We’re ready to help you take your organization’s password security to the next level. Contact our solutions experts and let’s get started! 

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