- Schools are being exposed by weak passwords within their organization
- Hackers are rapidly targeting educational institutions
- Both ‘123456’ and ‘Password’ are in the top 5 of the most commonly used password in education
Universities, schools and training centers are being weakened by a spatial of weak passwords in the education industry, new research from the NordVPN show.
The company’s analysis suggests that by choosing educational institutions easy to remember (but easy to guess easily) has been selected – outlining the top 20 most reused passwords in the education sector, and searching, ‘123456’, ‘123456789’, ‘123456789’, with uses 1,233,447.
The irony is that the top five are also the most commonly used passwords, ‘passwords’ and ‘secret’. It goes without saying that they are at least contenders for a safe password, and they can leave your outfit weak, no matter in which field you operate.
No-So-Captured Password
“Educational institutions handle the vast amounts of personal information – from the records from records to internal communication – but many are still relying on passwords that will also fail in the most basic cyber security testing. The use of default or recycled credentials leaves the entire system unsafe for attacks,” called the Nordpass’s business products.
We have seen many high -profile attacks on schools and universities, including the infamous power school hacks, who have exposed the information of students and teachers, including name, date of birth and contact details – about 62 million students thought to be impressed.
Criminals like to target schools and universities to steal children’s personal information. With the data they steal, hackers can withdraw a loan or credit card by using personal information in identity theft attacks and fraud applications – especially because there is no children’s credit history.
If you need help in choosing a safe password – then there are some easy things that you can immediately do to make you more secure (or take a look at our full guide!).
Make sure your passwords are more than 12 letters, with a mixture of lowercases and uppercase letters, as well as some special characters.
A great example of a safe password would be a phrase from your favorite TV show, which has been switched to some letters numbers, eg; ‘On the streets; Further 6s & AM! ‘. Alternatively, see some best password generators to help with work.
