World Password Day

We are all guilty of using our favourite holiday destination, a pet’s name or our birth year for a memorable password across multiple sites.

But this World Password Day (Thursday 2^nd May 2024), a Cyber Security Expert is warning that the importance of strong passwords on our devices and online accounts is more important than ever as hackers are targeting multiple accounts of victims due to weak and predictable passwords.

65% of people in the UK admit they are scared about being hacked in the future, with 84% thinking hackers are becoming more inventive. Yet only a fifth of people (20%) are able to correctly identify a secure password over a compromised one which can be cracked by a computer in less than a second, and 20% admit to having just one password for multiple websites and devices.

New research by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) shows we are extremely predictable from a scammer’s perspective, with almost half using a significant date (21%) or a pet’s name (20%) as the topic of our passwords.

Aston spoke to computer scientist & security expert Junade Ali.

Photo by Glenn Carstens Peter on Unsplash