New research into password usage for new accounts during the onboarding process, has revealed a worrying trend where easily guessable passwords are left unchanged for new starters, presenting significant security risks for organisations.

The findings from Secops Software, an Outpost24 company, analysed 651 million compromised passwords which highlighted a list of 120,000 commonly used password for new team members.

At the top of the list was the term “User”, appearing 41,683 times. “Temp” was second appearing “28,469” times with “welcome” ranking third.

Other common terms found were “guest”, “starter”, and “logon” and highlights a serious issue with these phrases being used as security credentials. The need for stronger passwords being used is vital otherwise hackers can crack weak passwords in a matter of minutes.

Darren James, Senior Product Manager at Specops Software, said this about the findings: “Each time you’ve started a new job, there’s a decent chance you’ve been given a temporary password to get you into your system for the first time. These passwords are usually generated by the IT team, and in theory, should be as strong as any other password. Unfortunately, many organizations do not follow the best practices for password security, such as using long and random passphrases. These first day passwords are also often shared in plaintext.

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