The passwords that we make for our accounts are very similar to a house key used to lock the house. The password protects the online home (account) of personal information, thus possessing an extremely strong password is just like employing a superhero in a battle of heroes and villains.
However, according to a new blog post by Mozilla, superhero-themed passwords are progressively popping up in data breaches. Though it may sound absurd - following the research done by Mozilla using the data from haveibeenpwned.com, it was evident that most frequent passwords discovered in data breaches were created on either the names of superheroes or Disney princesses. Such obvious passwords make it easier for hackers to attack and hijack any account or system.
While analyzing the data it was seen that 368,397 breaches included Superman, 226,327 breaches included Batman, and 160,030 breaches had Spider-Man as their passwords. Further, thousands of breaches featured Wolverine and Ironman as well. And not only this research from 2019 showed that 192,023 breached included Jasmine and 49,763 breached included Aurora as their password.
There were 484,4765 breached that had password as ‘princess’ and some Disney + accounts had password as ‘Disney’. This is one of the biggest reasons that support data breaches by hackers and boost their confidence.
With the increasing frequency of compromised account credentials on the dark web, a growing number of businesses are turning to password-less solutions.
Microsoft has expanded its password-less sign-in option from Azure Active Directory (AAD) commercial clients to use Microsoft accounts on Windows 10 and Windows 11 PCs.
Almost all of Microsoft's employees are passwordless, according to Vasu Jakkal, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Security, Compliance, Identity, and Management group.
"We use Windows Hello and biometrics. Microsoft already has 200 million passwords fewer customers across consumer and enterprise," Jakkal said. "We are going completely passwordless for Microsoft accounts. So you don't need a password at all," he further added.
Though it's common to reuse passwords, it is highly dangerous, yet it's all too frequently because it's simple and people aren't aware of the consequences. Credential stuffing exploits take advantage of repeated passwords by automating login attempts targeting systems utilizing well-known email addresses and password pairings. One must keep changing their passwords from time to time and try to create a strong yet not so obvious password.
