{"id":38167,"date":"2025-05-25T00:05:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T22:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/159.69.82.204\/win\/?p=38167"},"modified":"2025-05-24T01:18:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T23:18:36","slug":"the-4-most-important-password-errors-that-jeopardize-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/2025\/05\/25\/the-4-most-important-password-errors-that-jeopardize-security\/","title":{"rendered":"The 4 most important password errors that jeopardize security"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; display: inline;\" title=\"Sicherheit (Pexels, allgemeine Nutzung)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.borncity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Sicherheit_klein.jpg\" alt=\"Sicherheit (Pexels, allgemeine Nutzung)\" width=\"200\" align=\"left\" \/>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.borncity.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/25\/die-4-wichtigsten-passwort-fehler-die-die-sicherheit-gefaehrden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">German<\/a>]Even if Information Technology should move towards passwordless logins (passkey &amp; Co.), logins using a user name and password are still widespread. Just as widespread are certain mistakes when choosing passwords, which jeopardizes security. I recently received an overview from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Hostinger<\/a> on this topic, which I would like to briefly post here.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Weak passwords are still one of the main causes of data protection incidents. Unfortunately, over 80% of incidents can be linked to compromised credentials, Hostinger writes. To better understand why so many passwords offer no real protection, Hostinger's experts analyzed thousands of real-world entries in several leaked data sets.<\/p>\n<h2>The four most common password mistakes<\/h2>\n<p>A combination of machine learning and behavioral analysis was used to identify the most common password mistakes and find out why users keep making them.<\/p>\n<h3>1. Use short passwords<\/h3>\n<p>Finding: 21.7% of the passwords analyzed by Hostinger were less than 8 characters &#8211; all of which were immediately cracked.<\/p>\n<p>Why this is the case: Short passwords are quicker to write and easier to remember. But they are also the first to be cracked by brute force attacks: Make sure your password is at least 12 characters long, preferably in the form of a phrase or sentence you can remember. Weak passwords remain one of the leading causes of data security incidents.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, over 80% of incidents can be linked to compromised credentials, Hostinger writes. To better understand why so many passwords offer no real protection, Hostinger's experts analyzed thousands of real-world entries in several leaked data sets.<\/p>\n<h3>2. Use \"unique\" passwords<\/h3>\n<p>Insight: Passwords that look unique (like \"minebluecar67\") often consist of low-entropy patterns that are easy to crack: People choose familiar word-number combinations because they believe they are more secure than generic passwords. But these formats are very predictable.<\/p>\n<p>What you can do now: Mix uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers and special characters and avoid common words or patterns.<\/p>\n<h3>3. \"Very weak\" doesn't always mean \"short\"<\/h3>\n<p>Insight: Although some of these passwords were more than 20 characters long, the crack rate was 13%, so they were almost as easy to crack as much shorter passwords: People assume that longer passwords are automatically more secure, but repetition reduces security (like \"aaaaaaa\" or \"123123123\").<\/p>\n<p>What you can do now: Avoid repetition. Variety in the structure is just as important as the overall length.<\/p>\n<p>Findings: A large proportion of the passwords used today still appear in the top 10 million most frequently leaked passwords. In the study conducted by Hostigner, 475 passwords matched high-frequency entries from lists of global security breaches.<\/p>\n<p>Why this happens: People are unaware that their login credentials have been compromised, or they reuse old passwords out of habit.<\/p>\n<p>What you can do now: Use sites like \"Have I Been Pwned\" to regularly check your login credentials and avoid reusing passwords that are on a known breach list.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion of the study<\/h2>\n<p>Many people assume that once they have set up their privacy settings or chosen a strong password, they are fully protected.<br \/>\nBut the truth is that security and privacy is an ongoing process. New threats and vulnerabilities are emerging all the time, and the platforms we use are constantly evolving.<\/p>\n<p>Staying safe requires vigilance &#8211; regularly reviewing privacy settings, using strong and unique passwords and enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) are just as important as the initial setup.<\/p>\n<p>Security-related settings should be maintained over time to ensure they still meet your needs and provide the right level of protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[German]Even if Information Technology should move towards passwordless logins (passkey &amp; Co.), logins using a user name and password are still widespread. Just as widespread are certain mistakes when choosing passwords, which jeopardizes security. I recently received an overview from &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/2025\/05\/25\/the-4-most-important-password-errors-that-jeopardize-security\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[580],"tags":[69],"class_list":["post-38167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","tag-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38167"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38171,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38167\/revisions\/38171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}