Millions of people are still using easy-to-guess passwords like "123456" and "qwerty" on sensitive accounts, a study has found. For its first cyber-survey, the NCSC analysed public databases of breached accounts to see which words, phrases and strings people used, the BBC reported. The second-most popular string, 123456789, was not much harder to crack, while others in the top five included "qwerty", "password" and 1111111. People who use well-known words or names for a password put themselves people at risk of being hacked, said Ian Levy, technical director of the NCSC. "Nobody should protect sensitive data with something that can be guessed, like their first name, local football team or favourite band," he said.

Source: dna April 21, 2019 11:15 UTC