More Than 15 Billion Passwords Were Cracked Over the Past Year

Nowadays, passwords are everywhere. And there is no getting around it. Going to transfer money or make a purchase in your favorite online shop? Want to check your inbox or log in to the app you haven’t used for a while? Well, enter your password first. 

Your passwords are the keys to your digital identity: from your favorite Netflix movies to your banking savings. Therefore, using strong passwords across all your accounts is essential to keep hackers and other third parties out of your data.

Despite complex passwords, cybercriminals tirelessly expand their lists of compromised credentials. Nearly 800 million accounts and over 25 million unique passwords were stolen over the past year. These include passcodes for banking applications, streaming services, personal social media networks, and business accounts.

How hackers steal your passwords

Cybercriminals have devised numerous ways to steal your passwords, account credentials, and other valuable information. The statistics are unforgiving: more than half of all passwords were brute-forced, and about one-third of them were compromised using the malware infection.

Keyloggers

Keylogging is one of the oldest methods cybercriminals use to steal account credentials and other sensitive information. It is monitoring software that gives cybercriminals access to almost everything you type on your keyboard. Keyloggers track and log which keys are pressed and send this info back to the cybercriminal who planted this malware.

Such monitoring software could be picked up from infected websites or via phishing emails. It doesn’t require physical access to your computer or smartphone.

Brute-force attack

A brute-force attack is still one of the most popular password-cracking methods. This cryptographic hack relies on submitting all possible password combinations until the correct one is discovered.

There are two common types of brute-force attacks. The first one is a Dictionary attack. It is a brute-force technique where attackers run through common dictionary words and try them as a password. How long does it take to crack a password using this type of attack? Check out this page to learn the answer.

The second type of brute-force attack is called the Rainbow table attack. Services and applications don’t store your password as plain text. They encrypt your passwords using a one-way hashing function. This hash function turns all entered passwords into a hash - a fixed-length data that can’t be decrypted. A Rainbow table attack is used to find out the original text that produces a particular hash.

How to protect your data from the sticky fingers of cybercriminals

There is no silver bullet to make your digital identity completely hack-proof. However, here are some tips that can help you to defend against cybercriminals.

Reliable password manager to keep your credentials safe

Passwarden offers encrypted storage for all your passwords and other sensitive data. This app implements high-reliability security algorithms and state-of-the-art encryption protocols: AES-256 and ЕС р-384.

What is more, Passwarden provides client-side end-to-end encryption. This means that your device only sends out encrypted data. Thus, even if any third party gets lucky to intercept your information on its way to the cloud server, the only thing they will see is a bunch of encoded symbols.

Try our top-notch password manager right now and explore a secure and convenient way of storing all your passwords!

Note: Passwarden is a part of the MonoDefense security bundle.

Complex passwords to defend against brute-force attack

Passwords that include special symbols, numbers, and uppercase letters are safer than lowercase passwords. The longer your password is, the more combinations of characters there are to check, and the more time the cracking process takes. Therefore, we highly recommend you create complex passwords that contain at least 10 characters.

Not sure you can create a strong password by yourself? Generate it using the Passwarden app! Our password manager allows you to specify password length, availability of symbols, numbers, and uppercase letters. Check out this step-by-step guide and learn how to generate strong passwords with no hassle.

Autofill feature to prevent keylogging attack

Apart from making your login process less of a burden, Autofill protects you from keylogging. With the Autofill feature enabled, you do not need to type your passwords using the keyboard - our secure password manager enters them for you. So, as you don’t print your password using the keyboard, cybercriminals have nothing to track.

You can learn more about the Autofill feature on this page.

Final Thoughts: How to defend against cyber attackers

• Create complex passwords that include special symbols, numbers, and uppercase letters.
• Get started with a top-notch password manager to keep all your passwords safe and have them available anytime and anywhere.
• Use the Autofill feature to prevent keylogging attacks.