- Top financial sector employees working for the world’s richest companies use very poor passwords to secure business accounts, new research by NordPass shows.
- While cybersecurity experts keep urging businesses to take better care of corporate accounts, passwords such as “password,” “123456,” and “aaron431” still make it to the top of the financial industry’s list.
- Interestingly, people working for corporations in the financial industry seem to be seriously longing for a break, since “vacation”, “sunshine” and “summer” feature among their top 20 password picks.
A large number of people working for the world’s richest companies use very poor passwords to secure sensitive business accounts, leaving data for millions of customers and institutions vulnerable to hacking, a new study by NordPass shows. While cybersecurity experts repeatedly urge businesses to roll out military-grade data safety measures, passwords such as “password,” “123456,” and “aaron431” still make it to the top of the financial industry’s list.
Some of the 10 most commonly used passwords in the financial sector are: password, 123456, aaron431, linkedin, Profit, sunshine, ready2go, welcome, company name*, and password1. While company name* directly references a company, NordPass is not naming the exact business. It notes the format in which this password was used, for example, the abbreviation of the company’s name, part of the name, or the name combined with other words or symbols.
Although NordPass looks at the change in internet users’ password habits year-round, this year, the company specifically investigated passwords that employees of the world’s biggest companies from 31 countries use to secure business accounts.
“On one hand, it is a paradox that the wealthiest companies on the planet with financial resources to invest in cybersecurity fall into the poor password trap. On the other hand, it is only natural because internet users have deep-rooted unhealthy password habits. This research once again proves that we should all speed up in transitioning to alternative online authentication solutions,” says Jonas Karklys, CEO of NordPass.
Weak passwords
According to the study, the passwords “password” and “123456,” which shared the top two spots in last year’s list of the world’s most common passwords, are also popular among the largest companies’ employees. Across all 20 analyzed industries, both of these passwords were found to be among the seven most commonly used passwords. The word “password” was the number one most trending pick among the financial sector’s employees and “123456” ranked 2nd.
Interestingly, people working for corporations in the financial sector seem to be seriously longing for summer, with “vacation”, “sunshine” and “summer” among their top 20 password picks. Other industries were also creative. The password “dummies” ranks sixth among consumer goods sector employees, “sexy4sho” – 16th among real estate employees, and “snowman” – 11th in the energy field.
Just like with regular internet users, dictionary words, names of people and countries, and simple combinations of numbers, letters, and symbols make up most passwords presented in the research.
However, the remaining 32 percent indicate another interesting trend. The world’s wealthiest companies’ employees love passwords that directly reference or hint at the name of a specific company. The full company name, the company’s email domain, part of the company’s name, an abbreviation of the company name, and the company product or subsidiary name are common sources of inspiration.
“These types of passwords are both poor and dangerous to use. When breaking into company accounts, hackers try all the password combinations referencing a company because they are aware of how common they are. Employees often avoid creating complicated passwords, especially for shared accounts. Therefore, they end up choosing something as basic as the company’s name,” says Karklys.
The analysis of the world’s wealthiest companies’ passwords was conducted in partnership with independent third-party researchers specializing in research on cybersecurity incidents. They looked into the world’s 500 largest companies by their market capitalization, which represented 31 countries and 20 industries.
The United States (46.2 percent), China (9.6 percent), Japan (5.8 percent), India (4.2 percent), the United Kingdom (4 percent), France (3.8 percent), and Canada (3.6 percent) are the countries most represented in this research. Also, most of the companies analyzed fell under the finance, technology and IT, and health care sectors.
Passwords will die
The study complements a series of password-related research projects NordPass has delivered throughout the years. In 2021, the company looked into the passwords that Fortune 500 companies use, and in 2022, investigated the password habits of top-level business executives. Moreover, NordPass annually presents the “Top 200 most common passwords” study, which broadly covers the password trends of internet users.
“While password trends slightly vary each year across different audiences, the general take is that people continuously fail with their password management, and the world desperately needs to switch to new online authentication solutions such as passkeys,” says Karklys.
Various progressive businesses such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, PayPal, KAYAK, and eBay have already adopted passkey technology and are offering their users passwordless login. According to Karklys, in no time at all, other online companies will start following this trend. Therefore, NordPass has developed a solution to store clients’ passkeys and is developing a tool for businesses to easily integrate passkey support to their websites.
How to secure business accounts
According to an IBM report, in 2022, stolen or compromised credentials remained the most common cause of a data breach in companies, accounting for 19 percent. Karklys says that by implementing a few cybersecurity measures, businesses could avoid many cybersecurity incidents.
- Ensure company passwords are strong. They should consist of random combinations of at least 20 upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and special characters.
- Enable multi-factor authentication or single sign-on. While the MFA set up on another device, connected with email or SMS codes guarantees an additional layer of security, single sign-on functionality helps reduce the number of passwords people have to manage.
- Critically evaluate whom to grant account credentials. Access privileges should be removed from people leaving the company and passed on only to those who are in need of certain access.
- Deploy a password manager. With a business solution, companies can safely store all their passwords in one place, share them within the organization, ensure their strength, and effectively manage access privileges.
The poor passwords list was compiled in partnership with a third-party company specializing in cybersecurity incident research. Researchers analyzed data that affected the world’s 500 largest companies by their market capitalization. The analyzed data was categorized into 20 different industries. The researchers looked into the top 20 passwords used in each industry.
