You thought you had found the right password with “Bonjour2024” or “12345678! »? Bad pick. According to Specops Software, cybersecurity specialist, 98.5 % of passwords used today can be cracked without forcing too much. The team has dissected 10 million passwords hanging out in the pirate databases that regularly talk about them in the news, when a site is hacked. And the trend is clear: people have no effort. Or they think they are doing it … but no.
The passwords that we believe clever and that everyone uses
Most passwords are short, predictable and not very varied: letters, one or two figures, and that’s it. Less than 4 % exceed 15 characters. However, it is from there that it starts to become serious no need for an 80 -character password with hieroglyphs. Specops has a simple rule: minimum 15 characters, and at least two special characters (letters + numbers, or letters + symbols, etc.). Why 15? Because from there, the combinations become too many to be broken by raw force.
But now, in fact, few people respect this instruction. Result: passwords too easy to guess, even when they are protected by hash systems. And if this password is reused everywhere (which is often the case), it is the whole network of a company or more personal accounts that become vulnerable. Even the most advanced protection systems cannot do much if your password is “chocolate”.
The consequences? Unauthorized access to internal services, sensitive data exposed, cascading hacks, etc. and potentially large concerns in the event of regulatory control. Not to mention the Botnet -style attacks or credential stuffing that love weak passwords.
The message is simple and clear: it’s time to shake old habits. Specops recommends that companies review their internal rules and adopt more robust solutions. It goes through better passwords, of course, but also through control tools, regular reminders, and if possible a good help from authentication with several factors.
Basically, we must stop believing that “admin” will be enough to secure anything. The hackers no longer even need to be tackled, everything is already ready to crack!
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