See the passwords that you should never use for your security

Cybersecurity is an aspect that must always be taken care of, especially in this era in which users carry out a good part of their activities through platforms and applications , from which it can be easy for cybercriminals to extract information .

One of the activities to which special care must be taken is the creation of passwords to access the profiles or accounts of the various platforms. According to figures from the World Economic Forum , up to $ 6 million has been lost so far in 2021 due to the theft of information. In addition, Mexico ranks second in cyberattacks .

For its part, the firm Nordpass , which is dedicated to password management, carried out a study around the world in which it analyzed the most common passwords in more than 50 countries, considering factors such as gender.

They found that the most used words to create passwords are:

• User names
• One direction
• Liverpool
• Car brands like Ferrari and Porsche
• Big words, especially men
• Dolphin
• Phrases like iloveyou
• Sports names like Hockey
• Band names like Metallica or Slipknot

The easiest passwords to crack in Mexico

The Nordpass study in Mexico found that the most common and easiest passwords for cybercriminals to crack are:

• Sequences of numbers that can go from 1 to 4 or 1 to 9: 123, 1234, 12345, 123456789, abc123
• Words like hello, mexico, america, password, qwerty, chivas
• Names of people like Alejandro, Carlos, Alejandra, Estrella and Daniel

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How to create and maintain more secure passwords?

Institutions such as the Information Security Coordination of the UNAM give some tips to keep passwords safe and, therefore, user information , among these:

• Do not recycle or reuse passwords
• Do not use the same password for all accounts
• Do not take back elements of existing passwords, such as numbers and words for the creation of new passwords
• Do not write passwords on pieces of paper that can be seen by other people
• Do not write passwords in the last pages of the notebooks, it is one of the most predictable places to write down passwords and therefore easier to find
• Do not share passwords with anyone no matter how much trust there is
• Use tools like two-step authentication to reduce the risk of a cyber attack.
• Lock devices such as computers and cell phones when not in use

For its part, Nordpass recommends some actions to create more secure passwords :

• Create passwords of at least 12 characters and combine uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols.
• Password generators are a good option for creating complex passwords.
• Change passwords every 90 days to keep accounts safe and secure from cybercriminals.
• Periodically evaluate the status of passwords.
• Identify weak, reused, or old passwords and strengthen online security by creating new passwords.
• Use a password manager to store and access passwords securely.

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