Attention businesses: please stop using the worst passwords possible
Many are still not taking account security seriously enough, report finds
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Corporate passwords are still being breached at an alarming rate, with many businesses continuing to use the most easily hackable strings imaginable.
In its annualWeak Password Report, password management firm Specops Software analyzed over 800 million breached passwords, finding they are, “still the weakest link in an organization’s network.”
Unsurprisingly, 88% of those that were cracked were made up of 12 characters or less, with the most common phrases being ‘password’, ‘admin’, ‘welcome’ and ‘p@ssw0rd. Nearly 20% also contained exclusively lower case characters.
Not strong enough
What is perhaps more surprising is that even passwords considered strong in line with standards such as NIST and PCI made up 83% of those compromised.
Stop using sticky notes to write down passwords>What is a password manager and how does it work>How far are we from a passwordless future?
“This shows that while organizations are making concerted efforts to follow password best practices and industry standards, more needs to be done to ensure passwords are strong and unique," Specops Product Manager Darren James noted.
“With the sophistication of modern password attacks, additional security measures are always required to protect access to sensitive data,” he added.
Brute force attacks were commonplace for threat actors, going through common and breached passwords and using them in combination with a business email until they eventually gained access to a firm’s account.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
The report even found that old passwords, such as one leaked in a 2016 breach of MySpace, were still being successfully employed by hackers.
It also mentions thebreach of Nvidia in April 2022, where many employees had secured their accounts with weak passwords such as ‘Nvidia’, ‘qwerty’ and ‘nvidia3d’, showing that even large and prominent firms are guilty of poor password practices.
To tackle the problem, James recommends that businesses first protect “Active Directory, the universal authentication solution for Windows domain networks.” Then, third-party software, such aspassword managersandpassword generatorsshould be used to create and ensure the use of strong and unique passwords.
Lewis Maddison is a Reviews Writer for TechRadar. He previously worked as a Staff Writer for our business section, TechRadar Pro, where he had experience with productivity-enhancing hardware, ranging from keyboards to standing desks. His area of expertise lies in computer peripherals and audio hardware, having spent over a decade exploring the murky depths of both PC building and music production. He also revels in picking up on the finest details and niggles that ultimately make a big difference to the user experience.
This new phishing strategy utilizes GitHub comments to distribute malware
Should your VPN always be on?
New fanless cooling technology enhances energy efficiency for AI workloads by achieving a 90% reduction in cooling power consumption
