- Schools are left exposed by low passwords within their organization
- Pirates are increasingly targeting education establishments
- “123456” and “password” are both in the first 5 passwords most used in education
Universities, schools and training centers are left vulnerable by an endemic of low passwords in the education industry, according to new research from NordVPN.
The company’s analysis reveals that educational institutions are not late by choosing easy -to -remember passwords (but easy to guess) – describing the 20 most reused passwords in the education sector, and discovery, with 1,233447 observed uses is “ 123456 ”, followed closely by “ 123456789 ”, and “ 21345678 ”, with just a million examples.
Ironically, in the five most used passwords, are also “password” and “secret”. It goes without saying that they are pretenders to the least secure passwords possible and that they could make your organization vulnerable, regardless of the sector in which you operate.
Passwords not so secret
“Educational institutions manage large amounts of personal information – from students’ files to internal communications – but many still count on passwords that would even fail the most basic cybersecurity test. The use of default or recycled identification leaves the entire vulnerable system to attacks ”.
We have seen several high -level attacks against schools and universities, including the infamous hack of power schools that exposed information from students and teachers, including names, birth dates and contact details – with nearly 62 million students who are affected.
Criminals like to target schools and universities to steal personal information from children. With the data they fly, hackers can contract loans or credit cards using personal information in identity flight attacks and fraudulent applications – especially because children have no credit history.
If you need help to choose a safe password – there are a few easy things you can do to immediately make yours more secure (or take a look at our full guide here!).
Make sure your passwords contain more than 12 characters, with a mixture of tiny and capital letters, as well as special characters.
An excellent example of a safe password would be a sentence of your favorite television program, with a few switched letters for figures, such as; “Streets; AHEADS6S & AM! ”. Alternatively, consult some of the best generators of passwords to help with the task.
