{"id":31255,"date":"2013-11-13T08:04:25","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T16:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.mcafee.com\/?p=31255"},"modified":"2025-08-18T01:10:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T08:10:37","slug":"cracking-passwords-is-as-easy-as-123","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/privacy-identity-protection\/cracking-passwords-is-as-easy-as-123\/","title":{"rendered":"Cracking Passwords is as Easy as \u201c123\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

One month after announcing a corporate data raid affecting 2.9 million of their users, Adobe has found the extent of this breach to be even larger than initial estimates. The count of compromised users has increased to 38 million\u201313 times what they originally thought. The volume of leaked user data, while unfortunate, has provided an opportunity for security experts<\/a> to analyze the passwords chosen by millions of users, and what they\u2019ve found is alarming.<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks after the breach came to surface, a large file including millions of Adobe usernames, passwords, and password hints was dumped online by AnonNews.org. While the passwords were encrypted, the hints were not\u2013giving experts looking into the issue increased insight about the stolen passwords. This, coupled with some other factors, enabled security experts to decipher the 100 most common passwords in a matter of hours. So what, exactly, did they discover?<\/p>\n

Experts found that most users continue to choose convenience over security when it comes to protecting their accounts. The top four passwords found in the Adobe data leak, representing nearly 3 million accounts, were \u201c123456,\u201d \u201c123456789,\u201d \u201cpassword,\u201d and \u201cadobe123.\u201d Variations of these 4 passwords can be found in abundance as one moves down the list (\u201c123123,\u201d \u201cabc123,\u201d etc.) Despite being urged to create stronger passwords, basic numeric and common sense codes continue to prevail. And even more distressing is the password hints to these easily crackable passwords, including such plain text clues as \u201c123,\u201d \u201cnumbers,\u201d and \u201cnumeros.\u201d Too many users are making it simple for cybercriminals to hack their way in.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s alarming to see so many people neglecting to take their security into consideration when crafting a \u201csecret\u201d code, a lot can be learned from this Adobe breach\u2013both for corporations and consumers. Moving forward, Adobe has committed to increasing protection for the passwords on their database. Facebook, too, has taken the opportunity to mine some of the data leaked during the breach in order to warn people who were using similar login details for both sites. Other major corporations would be wise to do the same.<\/p>\n

Tips to Know When Creating Passwords<\/h2>\n

As far as the everyday user is concerned\u2013passwords are the key to protecting your online and offline security<\/a>. There are several important tips to take into account when creating passwords:<\/p>\n