Facebook and Gmail users warned never to use these passwords or they could be hacked, study claims

EXPERTS have warned against using certain common passwords on apps as they increase the chances of being hacked, a new report found.

The study conducted by card payments company Dojo found that many people tend to recycle similar passwords.

The study looked at 100,000 breached passwords from the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and then grouped them into more than 30 categories, from animals to star signs.

The research yielded some interesting commonalities: Most people tend to use variations of the same password, with a slightly different number or character.

People also tend to gravitate towards certain password categories - at the top of the list are pet names and terms of endearment such as 'baby,' 'love,' and 'angel.'

"By seeing which category had the most breached passwords, the study can reveal the password subjects you should avoid as a whole to stay secure online," the study wrote.

The study also specifically advised users to stay away from passwords that feature things such as sports, car makes, food, colors, cities, and countries, among others.

According to the NCSC, other popular passwords to stay away from are those that feature a sequence of numbers such as '123456' (23.2 million users), '123456789' (7.7 million users), and '1111111' (3.1 million users). 

It is well documented that cybercrime is on the rise, especially as most payment options are expected to be completely digital in the future.

Furthermore, cybercrime has soared by 600% since the Covid Pandemic, while 80% of UK organizations experienced at least one successful cyberattack in 2019.

However, by improving your security, you can significantly lower your risk of getting attacked by threat actors.

While staying away from the most hacked keywords is a start, you can take security measures a step further by opting for passwords generated by tools like 1Password.

You can also employ 3D Secure authentication for online credit and debit card transactions.

In other news, Nasa has upgraded its asteroid hazard software with some key changes that should help it better detect potentially dangerous space rocks.

Nasa has revealed stunning footage of a solar flare in action.

And, the US space agency is planning for a 'golden asteroid' probing mission to launch this summer.