Weak passwords in WA Government agencies are putting sensitive data at risk
Credit:
ABC
An examination of passwords and computer systems within WA Government agencies by auditor-general Caroline Spencer found 26 per cent of accounts had weak or commonly used passwords.
That equates to 60,000 out of the 234,000 accounts examined across 17 government agencies. 'Password123', 'Project10', 'support' and 'password1' were the most common passwords discovered, with 'password', 'abcd1234' and 'password2' also cracking the top 15.
One in five of the weak passwords found were also variants of a date or season, while variants of the word 'password' were identified on thousands of accounts.