Astrology on mind? Is your password Taurus? Don’t use horoscope; check these astro tips, avoid trouble

Fans of Astrology keep passwords after their horoscope star signs like Taurus, Aries, Scorpio, Gemini etc. Keeping Zodiac signs as passwords is dangerous. Follow these astro tips instead.

Astrology fans should not use their horoscope star signs such as Gemini, Taurus, Scorpio, Capricorn for passwords. Zodiac signs as passwords are dangerous, check astro tips to stay safe (Pixabay)

Astrology can be quite interesting, fascinating even. From both taking a sneak peak into your future to finding out if you are compatible with your best friend's horoscope star sign or not. But for those of you who bring your enthusiasm for astrology to the digital security realm - stop! Keeping Zodiac signs as passwords is a dangerous affair. There are only 12 options and a hacker would not need more than a couple of minutes to figure it out. So, here is our astrology tip of the day for you - make your password strong and unique to protect from hackers and scammers. And if you don't know how to do it, that's okay. We have shared some tips to make your passwords strong and unique based on a report by Dojo tech. Follow our astro tips to avoid getting hacked.

A password can be weak if it has just alphabets or numbers or it is shorter than 6 characters. Further, if it is based on your or loved one's name, pet name, horoscope star signs etc, it makes it weaker. People often pick these passwords because they are easy to remember. But they are also easy to guess. A recent 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 out that terms of endearment are the most hacked passwords. The biggest offenders were ‘Love' (hacked 1492 times), ‘Baby' (417) and ‘Angel' (330).

Weak passwords you should be avoiding

From Taurus to ‘iloveyou' to cheeseburger, the list of weak passwords are endless. However, there are some passwords which are weaker than others. Yes, even worse than horoscope based passwords! In fact, these passwords are so bad that they made it to Dojo's top 5 most commonly hacked passwords list. And despite how silly you may think these are, millions of people are using these weak passwords. Check out the list.

1. 123456 (used by 23.2 million users)

2. 123456789 (7.7 million users)

3. Qwerty (3.8 million users)

4. Password (3.6 million users)

5. 1111111 (3.1 million users)

Please do not use these passwords.

The risk with horoscope based passwords

Just because horoscope star signs as passwords rank 20 out of 30 in the worst passwords list, does not mean that the risk associated with these passwords is any lesser. Since a person's Zodiac sign is decided by their date of birth, a very common piece of information, it is quite easy to guess someone's password. For example, if a person born in the later half of April or first half of May keeps the password Taurus, then a hacker will have no problem guessing it. Not only Taurus but all horoscope based passwords like Scorpio, Gemini, Capricorn, Aquarius, Cancer and others are at an exactly same risk. There are a total of 12 Astrology passwords so a hacker will not really need a lot of time to guess the right one. But don't worry. 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 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 make your password strong and unique

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

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.

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.

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

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.