Weak passwords putting your online accounts at risk
A new study by Telstra has found that almost half of Australians use weak passwords, such as their pet’s name, or birth date. This makes it easy for hackers to guess their passwords and gain access to their accounts.
Already this year, Australians have lost $194 million to scams and hacking.
The study also found;
- 78% of Australians use the same password across multiple accounts. This means that if one account is hacked, all of their accounts could be compromised.
- One in five (20%) use their pet’s name
- More than one in ten (13%) use “generic” passwords like “password”, “123abc”, “123456” or
- “987654” (Men are also twice as likely as women to use this type of password, 19% compared to 8%)
- One in ten (9%) have used their favourite sporting team (most popular amongst Millennials at 16%)
- A further 17% have used their own birthdate
To protect your online security, you should use a password manager to create and store unique passwords for each account.
Get more details from the Telstra study at https://exchange.telstra.com.au/almost-half-of-australians-use-a-weak-password-heres-what-that-looks-like/
