How safe is your password?

Imagine how frustrated you’d feel if you left your keys in the front door and someone broke in and stole all your treasured possessions. Well experts are warning that many of us are doing exactly the same thing with our bank accounts and other sensitive internet sites or apps that require the use of a password.

Why? Simply because the passwords people are using are just so obvious that it is easy for people with bad intentions to hack in and steal your money or personal information.

The evidence for this is quite astounding with a company called SplashData recently compiling a list of the top 20 most common passwords for 2017:

1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345
4. 12345678
5. football
6. qwerty
7. 1234567890
8. 1234567
9. princess
10. 1234
11. login
12. welcome
13. solo
14. abc123
15. admin
16. 121212
17. flower
18. passw0rd
19. dragon
20. sunshine

So, while we know remembering a password can be annoying sometimes, it is something all of us need to take more seriously because the consequences can be extremely serious.  It is known also that a lot of hackers now use sophisticated computer programs that repeatedly put in multiple passwords until they eventually crack the code, so to speak.

If you use any of the above passwords P&N Bank strongly advises you to change it. Get some tips on what makes a strong password and staying safe online.

What about PINs?

Nick Berry, a Facebook data scientist, analysed 3.4 million PINs looking for patterns to help promote the importance of using secure passwords.

There are only 10,000 possible four-digit ATM PIN combinations but the study revealed more than 10 percent of those analysed used the pattern 1234.

The study also found the least common PIN was 8068. Why? Because according to Berry it doesn’t represent an easy pathway across a numeric keypad (on a computer keyboard or a phone), it isn’t a birthday, and there’s no inherent pattern to this number.

If you have any concern regarding your passwords or PINs, please call into any P&N Bank branch for assistance.