Passwords around the world: which ones are most used in each country and how to improve their security

Ang passwords they are a headache for memory and a challenge to originality, because each site entered by one, in theory, needs a different combination. And although “123456” is considered the most common, one study shows which is the most common association that occurs in each country.

Fifteen years ago, at the dawn of social networking, a six -character password was considered safe. Currently, the main thing is you have at least eight characters, although it is recommended to take it with a length of fifteen, with capital letters, symbols and numbers.

In another May 2 –World Password Day-, the ease of guessing certain passwords -explains the special site ExpressVPN- is associated with languages. While in English the password “password” is widely used, in German it is “passwort”. In French, the “qwerty” combination is replaced by “azerty”, which is how the keyboard is arranged in that language.

cultural factors has a huge influence on keywords which each person chooses. Thus, in Italy, “Juventus” is among the four most used. The word “Anathema” doesn’t seem like an ordinary password, except in Turkey, where the British musical group “Anathema” is so popular that the password is among the 10 most used.

To understand this phenomenon, the firm ExpressVPN created a graph, with data provided by Turkish researcher Ata Hakçıl, which shows the most used terms in each region of the planet.

How long to predict a password

Hive Systems experts raised the bar another point and pointed out that, if passwords have less than 6 characters -without a combination of numbers, symbols and capital letters- a middling thief can take time to find out the password to the time required to read this verse.

The rule states that the relative strength of an account, against a brute force cracking attempt, depends on the length and complexity of the key.

Hive Systems experts have evaluated how long it takes a pirate crack the hash of any account -a mathematical algorithm that converts an arbitrary block of data into a new string of characters of fixed length- using a desktop computer with a top-tier graphics card.

Following this same rule, passwords with less than twelve characters can be hacked immediately if they only contain numbers. And something similar happens if they consist only of lowercase letters.

Most social networks require that the key have at least 8 letters. To violate this part, the attacker will require a bit of patience, due to 39 minutes can find him. Conversely, if you use a combination of 12 characters with uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols, it will take hackers at least 3,000 years to figure it out.

The most used password in Argentina

In Argentina, the most used combination is 123456followed by 123456789 and the less original 12345 according to ESET, a security expert.

This is not the first time that 123456 is the most common password among netizens. In fact, in reports from previous years, released by cybersecurity companies, the same data was revealed.

The result of another investigation indicates that, of the one billion passwords analyzed, 7 million were 123456. Only 12.04% contained special characters. 28.79% are letters only. And only 4.5% start with digits.

Passwords: Tips and Recommendations

Strong passwords, according to Kaspersky firm specialists, do not have to match a single word and must contain a seemingly random combination of letters, numbers and special characters.

Some security specialists have recommended new approaches, such as use the first letters of a phrase that you can easily rememberbut that’s hard to guess.

Another key recommendation about passwords is change them periodically, at least every 90 days. The longer it takes before it changes, no matter how secure it is, the greater the risk that it will be cracked by criminals with random generators or compromised in some way.

SL