Your new gaming app just asked you to create a password. You want to start playing right away. So you type the first thing that comes to mind: 123456. Bad idea! That’s one of the most common passwords. A hacker could guess it almost instantly.
Weak passwords aren’t a problem only for gamers. Last October, thieves robbed the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. They stole jewels worth about $100 million. Louvre officials had been alerted to security problems years earlier. The password on some of the museum’s security cameras was simply “Louvre”! That’s according to a 2014 report.
Experts say an incident like that is a reminder of why cybersecurity matters. Without safety measures in place, valuable information—or treasures—are left unprotected.
“Think of all the important things you have in your accounts,” says Ariel Fox Johnson. She’s a data privacy expert at Common Sense Media. “It could be schoolwork, messages to your friends and family, or pictures.”