As online users continue to face password and security threats, most recently highlighted by this year’s Heartbleed scare, it has become even more important to ensure your passwords aren’t so easy to crack.
According to a new survey from Dashlane, a password management company, many of today’s popular websites, including Chicago's Groupon, aren’t setting the bar very high when it comes to password requirements.
The study used 22 password criteria to judge more than 80 websites and researchers found more than 86 percent had “subpar” policies.
“Many failed to implement even the bare minimum standard security practices, leaving consumer data across the web dangerously susceptible,” Dashlane said in a release.
Among one of the lowest ranked sites was Groupon, which even allowed “password” to be a user’s password.
Some of the other sites to receive a low grade in the study included Match.com, Hulu, Overstock, Amazon, Orbitz, US Airways and Victoria’s Secret.
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Match.com, 1800Flowers and Fab even allowed users to create new accounts using only the letter “a” as the password.
Apple had the highest rating in the study and was the only website to receive a perfect score. Hotmail, Microsoft Store, UPS, Target, GoDaddy and Yahoo Mail also ranked high in the results.
The study found that 66 percent of the websites reviewed don’t require alphanumeric passwords, and 51 percent don’t lock accounts after 10 failed login attempts.
In a time when security breaches are on the rise, it's ever more important to rely on a complex password, and apparently not on the requirements from a website.
That means no more "abc123."
