Millions of Brits are using weak passwords

The latest data from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)  shows that millions of British people using their pet’s names as passwords, along with other easily guessed answers, despite it being an easy target for hackers.

It is worrying that millions of Brits are using common names and numbers as their online passwords. For many this won’t come as a surprise, however by opting for something personal and simple to remember, we are making the life of cyber criminals even easier.

The consequences of a password breach can be catastrophic, providing cyber criminals with an open door to highly sensitive data. The challenge is that many people treat their passwords as a trade-off between something secure and complex, versus something that is easy to remember.

We need to break this trend and combine passwords with new authentication options such as biometrics, mobile token and other easy to use tools and applications. But, if we want to see users truly embrace password security, this needs to be combined with a positive user experience. Otherwise time and time again we will see these reports to come to light.