Data breaches are up 58 percent in the first half of the year and are on a record-setting pace. Herb Weisbaum, a Consumers' Checkbook contributing editor, discusses how to safeguard your online accounts.

Data Breaches Skyrocket; Here's How to Safeguard Your Online Accounts

Welcome to the Identity Theft Resource Center's (ITRC’s) Weekly Breach Breakdown for August 8, 2025. I'm Alex Achten, Senior Director of Communications & Media Relations of the ITRC. Thanks to Sentilink for supporting the ITRC and this podcast. Each week, we look at the most recent events and trends related to data security and privacy. Today, we are going to look at how a weak password at a large corporation led to the exposure of millions of people’s personal information, and explore good password practices.  

In the past on this podcast, we have joked about the password “123456”. It is a very weak password and, according to the 2025 Hive Systems Password Table, it would be cracked instantly by an identity criminal. This weak password provides no security, and while you’d think no one would use it today, it is still commonly used. In fact, NordPass reports that it is the most commonly used password worldwide, with a count of 3,018,050. 

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The Weekly Breach Breakdown Podcast: 123456 – Weak Password Leads to McDonald’s Data Breach - S6E24

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