Microsoft: Here are some common passwords you should avoid

Hammad Saleem

Outlook

Internet is not a safe place anymore. Everyday, we see horror stories of websites being compromised. So, it’s really important to make sure that you have a strong password on all the services you use, especially the ones which contain your banking and credit card details. 

Many of us tend to use some common passwords, resulting in some unexpected set of events. Recently, Microsoft revealed a few passwords which we should avoid on any service we use. Microsoft’s Eve Blakemore said in a new blog post, many people use “password” as their password on services ( I mean really? people use that?).

It also mentioned that “123456” or a similar number sequence is also one of the most commonly used password, along with your pet names, or name of your spouse or best friends — those can be guessed in a jiffy so avoid those. 

Well, to make sure you’re not a victim, make sure you’re using strong passwords which are made up of combinations of both alphanumeric characters as well as special symbols and should be at least eight characters long. I know they may be a little difficult to remember, but you can use password managers out there. 

I’ve been using Lastpass as it can generate some strong passwords, with two-step authentication enabled. It’s an added security measure, and is supported on all major services on the internet, so make sure you enable two-step authentication. Additionally, make sure you don’t use a same password on multiple websites, and change it every now and then.