Passords Facts
- The top three most used online passwords are ‘123456’, ‘password’ and ‘123456789’. If you are using one of these, or similar – you’re already in password danger.
- The most common phrases used to form passwords are ‘letmein’ and ‘iloveyou’
- The most common keyboard patterns are ‘qwerty’, ‘q2w3e4’ and ‘zaqxsw’
If you use one of the passwords above, or one similar – you are already in danger of having your
password easily compromised.
Password Security
- Use a third-party password manager. Browser managers are limited and unreliable, and can be victim to security flaws with browser, extensions or third-party software
- Don’t base your password on relatable items (ie. street name, pet name, favourite food)
- Use a different password for every online account
- Use a passphrase rather than a password
- Activate two-factor authentication whenever possible
Password vs Passphrase
Previously it was thought to make a password out of an obscure reference, change some letters to numbers and add a few punctuation marks, and we would have a strong password. This might be the case, but they can be difficult to remember. Here are some examples:
![](https://wjrcoop.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/quantify1-1.png)
would take less than 5 minutes to crack
![](https://wjrcoop.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/quantify2.png)
would take 7 hours to crack, and good luck remembering what you changed.
![](https://wjrcoop.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/quantify3.png)
would take several thousand years to crack, and is very easy to remember.
As you can see the last choice of using a passphrase is better than an obfuscated password of 10-12 characters. Many people, myself included, use phrases that have meaning like a quote out of a book, or a lyric from a song, something we will never forget.
Using a passphrase with a decent password manager, with 2FA, would render you bulletproof.