Online security: we’re all getting worse, but you can improve

During 2016 it became fashionable to label the year as one of the worst ever. But here’s some further bad news: people got even worse at setting good passwords.

New data from Keeper Security shows that bad habits spread even wider, with 123456 continuing to dominate as the most popular password. It’s also pretty hopeless as a password, as even the most novice of hackers knows to try out such obvious picks (and number two on the list – 123456789 – is no better). The whole list is a pretty depressing read about our ability to set good passwords.

But as the news headlines keep on reminding us all, good password security is vital for protecting internal information, digital accounts and customer data. So now is a great time to make sure that the passwords used on your digital accounts are hard to guess, not written down on post-it notes on monitors, and that they get updated when staff leave.