Cybercriminals are using increasingly devious scams to con Internet users into revealing precious online information. Yet millions of people have saved fraudsters the bother of deploying trickery and temptation by picking bizarrely simple passwords that feature on a new hotlist of online security howlers.
One of them, for example, is “password.”
Simply typing in the word has allowed fraudsters to gain access to a staggering 3.6 million accounts worldwide, according to a comprehensive review by the British National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
However, it was far from the most common password to gift them easy access. About 23.2 million people used “123456” as their password, only to find their code was cracked.
Another 3.8 million were caught out using “qwerty” — the first six letters on the top left of a standard keyboard.
The worrying lapses in online security emerge in a review of the top 100,000 passwords to be unlocked by online fraudsters, carried out by the NCSC — part of the British Government Communications Headquarters intelligence agency.
Using favorite names, soccer teams, bands and fictional characters also exposed millions to hacking, the review found.
The advice from the center is simple — using three random words as a password should keep your information safe.
It comes with evidence that British Internet users are seriously concerned about the prospect of being defrauded online.
More than two-fifths (42 percent) expect to lose money through Internet fraud by 2021, according to the first “UK cybersurvey” carried out by the NCSC.
While 89 percent use the Internet to make online purchases, with 39 percent doing so on a weekly basis, only 15 percent said they know a great deal about how to protect themselves from harmful activity.
One-third said they relied on friends and family for advice.
Less than half do not always use a strong, separate password for their e-mail account.
Data on compromised passwords were obtained from global breaches that are already in the public domain, having been sold or shared by hackers.
Favorite names, sports teams and musicians also cropped up hundreds of thousands of times among the top hacked passwords.
About 432,276 accounts used the name “ashley,” while “michael” was used 425,291 times.
Soccer fans also allowed their love for their club to lower their defenses. The password “liverpool” was breached 280,723 times, “chelsea” 216,677 times and “arsenal” 179,095 times.
Bands were another weak spot. While “blink182” might seem like a strong e-mail, 285,706 people had it breached as a password.
As for comic characters, “superman” was the most popular, with 333,139 hacked accounts using it.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
RSS