Everyone fears having their personal information stolen or accounts hacked because a cybercriminal has figured out their passwords. However, between April 2024 and April 2025, that became a reality for many, as hackers secured 19,030,305,929 passwords. The scary thing is that only 6% of the 19 billion confiscated passwords were unique, meaning they weren’t reused for other accounts or purposes.
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Keeping your accounts and information safe should be a top priority for you in 2025. Here’s what you need to know.
How Hackers Steal Passwords
Hackers are continually devising new methods to exploit people with technology. They use a variety of techniques to get the information they need to break into their victims’ accounts. These are some tactics to look out for:
- Phishing attacks: Hackers use fake emails, texts and phone calls to trick you into believing they are legitimate. They then persuade you to give them confidential information.
- Malware: Hackers use software to get your information. They can get this software on your computer through email links, infected removable drives, corrupted downloads and malicious websites.
- Password-cracking tools: Hackers can use software that continuously generates password guesses until it finds the correct one. If you reuse or have weak passwords, you may be vulnerable to this method.
- Password sharing: Sending passwords to others through unencrypted messages is an easy way for hackers to gain access to your accounts.
- Shoulder surfing: Hackers stand behind or near you and watch you type in your password or observe your screen to steal the information.
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Passwords To Avoid
Weak passwords are those that hackers can figure out easily. They are usually short, contain only numbers or letters or are words found in a dictionary. Some of the most easily hacked passwords include:
- 123456 (or any string of consecutive numbers)
- password
- qwerty (a keyboard row of letters)
- secret
- 000000
- iloveyou
- dragon
- computer
All of these are simple combinations that password hacking programs can find in under a second.
How To Protect Yourself
There are steps you can take to boost your security online. Here are four things to consider.
Creating Strong Passwords
Strong passwords aren’t a guarantee that you’ll never have a cybersecurity issue, but they put you in a much better position. For a strong password, make a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. The longer your password is, the harder it will be for a hacker to figure it out, so include at least 12 characters. It’s also important not to use any words that you can find in the dictionary or that represent a person, character, organization or product. You should also keep individual passwords for all of your different accounts.
Get a Password Manager
Password managers are a type of software that creates and stores different passwords for all of your needs. If you decide to use a password manager, you’ll only need to remember the password for the program. Your password manager will keep track of all of the other usernames and passwords for everything else.
If a hacker can figure out the password to your password manager, it doesn’t mean they’ll get access to your information. Password managers have top-notch security and encrypt your information.
Use 2FA
Adding an extra layer of protection can also reduce your stress. Many platforms and businesses use two-factor authentication (2FA), which requires two types of identification to gain access to information or a network. There are several different combinations for 2FA:
- Password
- Push notifications to another device
- Pre-generated code
- SMS verification
- Authenticator app code
- Biometric authentication
- Hardware key
Update Software
Another thing you can do is make sure your software is always up to date. While it takes time and might require restarting your computer, these updates are usually for fixing software bugs or updating security. Keeping old versions of software on your computer leaves you exposed to already resolved issues that hackers might exploit.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Just 6% of Stolen Passwords Are ‘Unique’ — Avoid Losing Thousands With 4 Fail-Safe Security Tips
