Using a name as your password? You might be at risk of cybersecurity breach

Cybersecurity is a popular buzzword in the era of digitalization. With promising technologies also come vulnerabilities associated with privacy and security. In fact, data security is the biggest problem in the digital age. As organizations embark on their journeys of digital transformation, they need to look for security approaches to ensure data protection.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NSC), United Kingdom's independent authority on cybersecurity, has published its first 'UK cyber survey' report alongside separate analysis of the 100,000 most commonly re-occurring passwords that have been accessed by third parties in global cyber breaches.

Highlights of the survey

• Only 15% say they know a great deal about how to protect themselves online
• 23.2 million victim accounts worldwide used 123456 as a password
• One in three rely to some extent on friends and family for help on cybersecurity
• 70% always use PINs and passwords for smartphones and tablets
• Less than half do not always use a strong, separate password for their main email account
• Young people more likely to be privacy conscious and careful of what details they share online
• Ashley, Michael, Daniel, Jessica and Charlie among 20 most commonly occurring names used as passwords in breaches.

"Password re-use is a major risk that can be avoided - nobody should protect sensitive data with something that can be guessed, like their first name, local football team or favourite band," said Dr Ian Levy, NCSC Technical Director. "Using hard-to-guess passwords is a strong first step and we recommend combining three random but memorable words. Be creative and use words memorable to you, so people can't guess your password," he added.

The findings, released ahead of the NCSC's CYBERUK 2019 conference in Glasgow this week, will inform government policy and the guidance offered to organisations and the public. The survey was commissioned by the National Cyber Security Centre and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as part of the UK Government's National Cyber Security Programme. Ipsos MORI were commissioned to carry out the research.

The hyper-connected world needs to understand the potential threats and utilize the latest defensive techniques to help address potential vulnerabilities and stand vigilant against future attacks. And let's not forget the famous saying by Benjamin Franklin 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure' because it literally takes fewer efforts to prevent something than to fix it afterwards. Hence, preventing cyber attacks should be the key priority than to wait until the attacks happen.

(With inputs from National Cyber Security Centre)