News

NordPass Shines Light On Poor Password Hygiene

The word “password” is the second most commonly used password by people who are in charge of important organizations.

Published

4 years ago

June 5, 2022

nordpass shines the light on poor password hygiene

It’s often said that people are the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain, and the latest research from NordPass, a provider of the eponymous password manager, certainly confirms this.

NordPass examined over 290 million data breaches worldwide and discovered something alarming: high-ranking business executives and company owners frequently use passwords that are so laughably weak that using them is like begging to be breached.

Just take a look at the top ten most used passwords by CEOs:

Rank	Password	Count
1	123456	29,401
2	password	22,511
3	12345	11,867
4	123456789	10,988
5	qwerty	9,738
6	1234	6,520
7	qwerty123	6,446
8	1q2w3e	5,809
9	111111	5,487
10	12345678	5,099

As you can see, basic number and letter sequence combinations still dominate, and the fact that the word “password” is the second most commonly used password by people who are in charge of important organizations doesn’t really paint the current cybersecurity landscape in nice colors.

Besides these textbook examples of poor password security, high-ranking business executives and company owners are also fond of common names like “Tiffany” and “Charlie,” and they seem to like animals and mythical creatures, with “dragon” and “monkey” being the top animal- and creature-themed passwords.

Also Read: Is Your Phone Hacked? How To Find Out & Protect Yourself

“It is unbelievable how similar we all think, and this research simply confirms that,” says NordPass CEO Jonas Karklys. “Everyone from gamer teenagers to company owners are targets of cyber-crimes, and the only difference is that business entities, as a rule, pay a higher price for their unawareness,” he adds.

To better protect themselves, all employees should avoid password reuse at all costs, and a good password manager like NordPass can make this much easier. They should also turn on multi-factor authentication when possible for an added layer of security.

News

Samsung And Spotify Offer Free Premium Deal In MENA

Nearly seven in ten streams in the region come from 18-to-34-year-olds — the audience Samsung is hoping to entice into its ecosystem.

Published

7 days ago

August 7, 2026

Nour Nasir

Samsung

Samsung has announced a partnership with Spotify spanning the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye, bundling Spotify Premium with select devices across its ecosystem. The headline offer — up to four months of Premium for free — is a first for the region.

Customers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Türkiye who buy any OLED or 98-inch television, or any Galaxy S or Z series mobile device, get four months of Spotify Premium. The offer, tiered by market and device, is available at retail and on Samsung.com, and redeemed through the Samsung Promotion and Samsung Members apps.

For Samsung, the strategy is less about free music than about lock-in. The Korean tech giant’s pitch is continuity: a track starts on a Galaxy smartphone through Galaxy Buds on the commute, moves to a Samsung TV and soundbar in the living room, and stays controllable from a Galaxy Watch. The more seamlessly music travels between those devices, the harder it becomes to swap any one of them for a rival’s.

“Technology should bring people closer to the things they love, and few things connect people the way music does,” said Omar Saheb, Regional VP of Marketing and Online Business at Samsung Electronics MENA. The partnership, he added, gives customers “a genuine reason to choose Samsung for the experience, not only the product”.

Also Read: Shokz OpenFit Pro Review: Open-Ear Audio Finally Grows Up

For subscribers, Premium brings the usual package: ad-free listening, offline downloads, richer audio quality on Galaxy Buds and Samsung sound devices, and Jam, which lets friends build a shared queue.

“At Spotify, we are always working to make every listening moment feel more personal, meaningful, and worth it,” said Rami Jamal, Head of Partnerships at Spotify for South Asia, Middle East, and Africa.

The demographics go a long way to explaining the strategy. Across MENA, Türkiye, and Pakistan, nearly seven in ten Spotify streams come from listeners aged 18 to 34, according to the company — precisely the audience Samsung wants inside its hardware ecosystem before buying habits harden.