No matter how much technology advances, there will always be risks on the internet.
The online world might be useful, entertaining, and informative, but at the same time, it can also be the opposite of those traits.
If you’re not careful, it won’t take long for a hacker to get access to your information and details that you wouldn’t want anybody to access. That is why it’s necessary to take every measure to be safe online.
Cybersecurity is super important and should be taken more seriously, irrespective of whether you use the internet for personal or business-related reasons.
The first step to becoming safer online starts with your password. Do you think you use passwords that can be easily hacked? 🕵️♂️
I’ve been guilty of this in the past, and I don’t want you to feel the same, which is why we’ll be going over the most commonly used passwords you should avoid using at any cost.
Most times, we’re in a hurry while creating a new password and eventually end up using one we’ve used plenty of times on other platforms. This is one of the examples of “don’ts” while choosing a password.
Here are some of the Dos and Don’ts that’ll help you come up with better passwords.
Dos While Creating a New Password ✔
DO Change Your Password Regularly
Having the same password over the years will only make it easy for hackers to break into your account because this way, they’re given ample time.
DO Use a Mix of Lowercase and Uppercase Letters
For all I imagine, changing between uppercase and lowercase letters could be something hackers would bother doing at the very end, and it might not be their priority.
This is why it’s necessary to use a mix of them because it’s inconvenient for people trying to break into your account.
DO Add Special Characters
Special characters like “#, $. and %” are great additions to your normal password of only letters and numbers.
DO Use a Memorable Password
If you choose a super difficult password that you always forget, you’ll end up writing it down somewhere. And that “somewhere” might not be a safe place.
To avoid accidentally handing someone your password, you should try to create a password that’s hard to guess for others but still memorable to you.
In order to store your passwords safely, you need to check out your personal password manager as well as your team password manager.
Don’ts While Creating a New Password ❌
DON’T Use Apparent Patterns
Apparent patterns like abcd, 1234, qwerty, or asdfgh are easy to guess because we’re all aware of their sequence of it.
DON’T Share Your Password
I once made the mistake of sharing my password with my schoolmate when I was in 4th grade, and the next thing I knew, I lost access to my account the following day. No matter how harmless it may seem, you shouldn’t share your password with anyone unless it’s an emergency.
DON’T Add Your Favorite Sports
People close to you would probably know your favorite sports, so you should avoid including your interests in your password.
DON’T Include Your Personal Information
Personal information such as your name, hometown, username, and other details are a big no while creating a new password.
Now that we know the best practices while choosing a new password let’s look at the most common passwords. These are all verified by expert researchers.
USA
- soccer
- qwerty
- abc123
- password
- baseball
- super123
- taylor
- 123456
- password1
- hello
UK
- liverpool
- 123456789
- guest
- charlie
- chocolate
- monkey
- london
- george
- computer
- qwerty1
India
- bigbasket
- pass@123
- 123456
- indya123
- p@ssw0rd
- india123
- admin@123
- abhishek
- krishna
- abcdefgh
France
- azerty
- loulou
- 123456
- motdepasse
- bonjour
- chocolat
- coucou
- camille
- newmember
- 111111
Germany
- matrix
- thomas
- lol123
- internet
- blabla
- asdf
- snoopy
- hamburg
- handball
- werder
Spain
- swing
- hola
- taquiero
- patata
- carmen
- temporal1
- gemeliers
- gratis
- mariposa
- cocacola
Generate a Strong Password
Once you know the kind of passwords to avoid, it’s time to come up with a strong password. I understand it can be difficult to come up with it right away on your own, which is why tools like Geekflare’s Password Generator exist.
It’s a secure password generator that works like a charm. It can generate unique and complex passwords of up to 40 characters, with all the ingredients for an unbreakable password.
In fact, the tool allows you to choose from a bunch of different options to include in your password, such as:
- Lowercase
- Uppercase
- Numbers
- Special characters
- Length
It knows what exactly it needs to come up with the strongest passwords. You can tap on the refresh button to generate new passwords instantly and check if they’re weak or strong. Once you see a generated password that says “Strong”, you can choose that.
Final Words
This post provides you with everything you’d need to create strong passwords and avoid the practices that could get your account in the hands of hackers.
Next, you can check out cyber espionage and how to prevent it.
