Ride the Lightning

Same Old Story in 2022: Our Passwords are Dreadful!

November 29, 2022

The Register reported on November 25 that NordPass has released its list of the most common passwords of 2022. It’s the same old story – we can’t seem to get the hang (or the importance) of good passwords.

The most common password was (still) “password,” followed by “123456” and “123456789,” “guest,” “qwerty” and lots more easy-to-guess passwords.

Few of the passwords are even words. Most are just repetitions of a single character, sequences of easy-to-guess numbers, a straight run down a row of keys, or basic combinations like “pass@123.”

Virtually all of these can be cracked in less than a second.

Here are NordPass’ recommendations for password creation:

Make sure a password is at least 12 characters long and combine upper/lowercase letters with numbers and symbols. Better yet, use a password generator.

It’s essential to not reuse passwords on different accounts, something most people do, as well as regularly checking accounts to see which one you no longer use and can close. to reduce your online footprint.

Check your password strength regularly, which lots of password managers can do. And use a password manager.

A tip from me: Don’t store passwords in a browser. If you are compromised, the bad guys now have all your passwords and can easily determine the history of where they were used.

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President, Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
3975 University Drive, Suite 225, Fairfax, VA 22030
Email:   Phone: 703-359-0700
Digital Forensics/Cybersecurity/Information Technology
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