Weak Passwords Pervasive, Despite Security Risks

Weak Passwords Pervasive, Despite Security Risks

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Passwords security

Passwords security

Data from a breach affecting 32 million online accounts reveals the persistent popularity of weak passwords, despite obvious risks.

Five years ago, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates predicted the end of passwords because they failed to keep information secure. The real problem turns out to be people, who just can’t pick passwords that offer enough protection.

This point has been hammered home in a study of some 32 million passwords that were posted on the Internet after a hacker obtained them from social entertainment site RockYou last year.

In a report released on Thursday, Imperva, a security firm, analyzed the strength of the passwords people used and found that the frequent choice of short, simple passwords almost guarantees the success of brute force password attacks.

A brute force attack involves automated password guessing, using a dictionary or set of common passwords.

According to the report, “the combination of poor passwords and automated attacks means that in just 110 attempts, a hacker will typically gain access to one new account on every second or a mere 17 minutes to break into 1000 accounts.”

The report reveals that 50% of users rely on slang words, dictionary words, or common arrangements of numbers and letters, like “qwerty,” for their passwords.

Among users of RockYou, the most common password was “123456.”

read full article; Weak Passwords Pervasive, Despite Security Risks
informationweek.com

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Post On Jan 23rd, 2010 and filed under Featured, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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