We've all heard the advice about making sure that your passwords are secure but according to a recent list of the most common passwords released by Keeper, many of us are leaving our digital content wide open to hackers.

As you may be aware, large data breaches were a reoccurring topic in 2016. Using information collected from many of these breaches, Keeper was able to analyse 10 million passwords. One in every six passwords was'123456'. Based on that figure, around 17% of us are using a frighteningly simple combination to protect our information online. Yikes!

Other earth shatteringly easy combinations on the top 25 list included 'qwerty', 'password' and '111111'. Of note is the fact that the top 25 formed over half of the 10 million passwords analysed – that means there are a lot of us susceptible to cyber crime.

Central to all of this is the fact that many brands and businesses operate online in some capacity, websites, online shopping, social media, etc. Using an easy password is no different to leaving the door to your store unlocked.

The risks to your brand and business are enormous because in many instances, it's not just your information that you're protecting, it's your customers and their names, delivery addresses, payment details, etc.

Businesses that experienced data breaches include the Australian Red Cross Blood Bank, Yahoo, LinkedIn and Weebly.

So, how can you make sure that your password protection is as strong as it can be?

  • Use a combination of letters (upper and lower case), numbers and symbols - an eight-character password with numbers, symbols and mixed-case letters is harder to remember but it's also harder to guess because it has 30,000 times as many possible combinations than an eight-character password with only lower case letters;
  • Avoid sequential numbers and words;
  • Don't use names or birthdays or other personal information;
  • Use a unique password for each difference platform; and,
  • Keep your passwords secure.

It's also a good idea to keep your password backup options (recovery email and phone number) up-to-date and secure.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.