Astrology fans, don’t use horoscope star signs like Sagittarius for passwords; Check astro tips

Weak passwords are an invitation to hackers. Especially at risk are the horoscope star sign passwords like Gemini, Sagittarius, Scorpio or others that Astrology fans often do use. Follow our astro tips and protect yourself

Sagittarius (Pixabay)

There is no excuse for keeping weak passwords and endangering your online security. Hackers today are capable of using advanced systems capable of hacking into virtually any online account and the first layer of defense against them is your password. However, things are concerning. According to a survey called Digital Privacy and Password Management Habits by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, at least one in four Indians use weak passwords for their online accounts. And another report by Dojo suggests that people are using astrology too to set their passwords. Apparently, a large number of users use horoscope star signs such as Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Sagittarius as their password, which is very risky. So, here is our astrology tip of the day - please make your passwords stronger and more unique to protect them from hackers and scammers. If you are unsure how to do it, don't worry. We have shared some tips to make your passwords strong and unique. Follow our astro tips to avoid getting hacked.

The risk with Horoscope-based passwords

Recently, a report analyzed UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) data “on over 100,000 breached passwords” to categorize the most vulnerable passwords that a person can create. It found that not only horoscope star signs but names, endearing terms and even pet names were listed as passwords which were breached the most amount of times. Zodiac signs like Aries, Leo, Gemini, Cancer, Scorpio made it to the 20th position on the same list, highlighting how bad a choice they are when it comes to passwords.

Zodiac signs being in the top 20 of the list highlights how people still think it is a safe choice to have these passwords. And that is a matter of serious concern because hackers and scammers thrive on these opportunities. Whether the passwords are based on horoscope star signs, or a simple iloveyou or your name, they are all bad choices. In fact, the report by Dojo highlighted the top 5 worst passwords a user can keep. They include 123456, 123456789, Qwerty, Password and 1111111. What makes it terrifying is that each of these passwords have been breached millions of times, which means there are millions of people keeping these seemingly silly passwords.

Astrology passwords are no good either. A guess between 12 choices which can easily be traced by the victim's date of birth is not safe at all. Just think about it. If a person born in the later half of November or first half of December keeps the password Sagittarius, then how difficult will it be for a hacker to guess it? Take our astro tips with a difference given below that will help you pick a stronger and more unique password to keep the hackers at bay. This was reported by London-headquartered financial services firm Dojo, which came out with a report on ‘Top most hacked passwords'. Astrology tips are all very well and you can follow them freely, but not as passwords.

How to improve your passwords

Step 1:

Keep your passwords a mix of numbers, alphabets and special characters to make it hard to guess. Randomize these characters for better efficiency.

Step 2:

Make sure to have a password which is at least 8-12 characters long. Longer passwords will make it harder for a hacker to figure out correctly.

Step 3:

Use two-factor authentication or if possible multi factor authentication to have multiple hurdles before someone can hack into your account. Mobile OTP is a very good way to add layers to your password security.

Step 4:

Change your password regularly so even if your password was compromised, your account can stay safe.

Step 5:

Do not write down your passwords on cheque books, or other bank account books or papers you have. Do not send them on social media like WhatsApp, Facebook etc either.