Last month, a report published by Sydney-based data security firm Impreva revealed that the most popular Internet password is “123456″, followed by “12345″ and then “123456789″. The study, which analyzes 32 million passwords recently exposed in the Rockyou.com breach, paints a grim picture of how vulnerable our online accounts are, especially those which contain simple credentials. It is quite depressing to see many people still turning a deaf ear despite a couple of hacks in the past few years.
In response to that, the folks over at CXO have tested different passwords using Gmail password strength meter and put them together into an interesting infographic, showing what kind of passwords are considered weak, fair, good, strong and unbreakable. So are one of the guilty ones whose passwords fall in the weak and fair category? Well, if you are, then you ought to start taking action before your personal information or sensitive data gets stolen.
However, if you have difficulty squeezing a dozen of different passwords into your brain, then a possible solution would be to create a strong and long password for Internet bank accounts or any websites that involve money transactions or storage of personal data. For social networking or entertainment websites where stakes are much lower, you can select a password that is relatively easy to remember.