70% of Most Popular Passwords Can Get Cracked in Seconds

Most of us use numerous accounts and log into different websites on a daily basis. Are all your passwords unique and contain different types of characters, like uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers? If not, your accounts can be easily cracked by hackers. 

About 70% of the most popular passwords can be cracked in a matter of seconds. The statistics of data breaches due to weak passwords is really impressive. The password "123456" topped the list of 200 weak passwords that were used most commonly used in 2020. It was exposed more than 23 million times. The second weak password on the list, “123456789” was exposed about 7.8 million times. All in all, millions of accounts get cracked due to weak passwords nowadays.

How long would it take hackers to crack YOUR passwords? Are they strong enough? Are you sure they truly protect your accounts? Figure it out with the Passwarden team!

What is a Weak Password

What password is typically considered to be weak? It is usually a short, common word or set of symbols, such as “qwerty”, a person’s name, a popular phrase, location, etc. You know, something that’s very easy to remember. We are often tempted to use them for different accounts, instead of coming up with complex password combinations that will be impossible to recall later.      

However, being easy to remember, they are also very easy to crack. Weak passwords can be compromised in a brute-force attack and other types of cybercrime. 

What is a Brute-Force Attack 

A brute-force attack relies on guessing different password combinations until the correct one is found out. The longer the password you have, the more combinations should be tested to discover it. 

Brute-force attacks may be time-consuming and in some cases difficult to perform, but if your password is weak it may just take a few seconds and almost no effort at all. The stolen passwords are further used for identity theft, reselling harvested credentials to third parties, spreading fake content on your behalf, etc. 

Types of Brute-Force Attacks

The most common and the simplest brute-force attack technique is a dictionary attack. During this attack, a dictionary of possible passwords is tested. So if you’re using a dictionary word as your password, it may get cracked instantly. Given newer and more effective techniques, dictionary attacks tend to be somewhat outdated. 

Another type of brute-force attack is credential recycling. This type of brute-force attack reuses passwords and usernames leaked in other data breaches to break into other services. 

There is also a brute-force attack known as an exhaustive key search. In this case, to figure out your password, a computer tests all possible password combinations that include every possible character. Depending on the strength of your password, it’s just a matter of time until it gets cracked. 

How Long Does it Take to Crack a Password

As mentioned before, weak 8-character passwords like “password”, “123456789” can be cracked super-fast, in just 0.19 milliseconds. 

The more complex your password is and the more characters it contains, the longer it takes hackers to crack it. Here’s how long it takes to brute-force different passwords:

How to Create a Strong Password

A strong password is crucial for protecting your email, bank, social media, and other accounts from hacking. Follow these tips to create strong passwords and keep your digital life secure:

• Don’t use dictionary words, adjacent keyword combinations, or number combinations. For example, “football”, “asdfghjkl”, or “987654321” are extremely weak passwords. 
  
  There’s a common misconception that if you just change one letter or number in such weak passwords, you’ll make them much stronger. But that’s actually not true. Say, changing “a” to “@” in “footb@ll” leaves your chances of getting hacked almost as high as before. It would take cybercriminals just 3 minutes to crack the password “footb@ll”. 
  
  
• Create a password that is a mix of lower- and upper-case letters, symbols, and numbers. Coming up with such a password may be quite a fuss. That’s where a reliable password manager like Passwarden comes in to save your day. It generates strong passwords for you in just a few taps and stores them in a secure encrypted vault. 
  
  
• Don’t choose passwords that are based on personal information, like your name, phone number, date of birth, etc., as it may not be fully confidential. 
  
  
• Never use the same password for multiple accounts. However strong it is, if the password leaks in a data breach of one service, hackers may use it for credential recycling and get access to your profiles in other services as well. 
   

Passwarden – Best Tool to Create and Store Strong Passwords 

Passwarden is a part of the MonoDefense security bundle.

If you want to streamline the process of creating new passwords and be sure they are really strong, Passwarden is just what you need. Its password generator feature lets you get a complex password of the necessary length, containing letters, digits, capitals, and symbols in only a few clicks.

Once created, the app adds the generated password to your secure Passwarden vault for further use. There, your passwords and other sensitive data stay reliably protected with highly-secure encryption protocols AES-256 and ЕС р-384.

How to Generate Strong Passwords with Passwarden 

1. Download the Passwarden app. 
2. Create your KeepSolid ID and set a Master password. 
3. In your Passwarden app, choose the necessary item. This can be a login, a WiFi password, email, or bank account. 
4. In the Password field of the chosen item, click Generate Password.
5. Select the desired length of your password. 
6. Press the button Use Password and click Save. 

As easy as that! For more details, there is a guide on how to generate strong passwords. 

Bottom Line

Don’t put your accounts at risk with weak passwords. Improve your password security with Passwarden that will both generate strong passwords and remember them for you!