Hackers love your zombie accounts
How many online accounts have you made over the years? 50? 100? More? That’s enough to fill a digital graveyard.
A new study shows that 25% of all online accounts are never used again, but they don’t just disappear. They sit there, wide open, with your email address and password attached. These forgotten logins are called “zombie accounts,” and hackers love them.
Why? Because most people reuse passwords or use easy-to-crack ones. And those old accounts? They’re missing security updates, have no two-factor authentication, and usually are linked to your main email address.
💥 Easy takeover
Here’s the scary part: Hackers use a method called credential stuffing. It’s lazy but effective. Basically, bots test your old usernames and passwords across thousands of popular sites: Gmail, Netflix, Amazon, even your bank.
If they hit a match (and they often do), you’re toast. They can steal your identity, drain your accounts or hold your data for ransom.
What’s worse? These attacks happen 24/7, using bots that can test thousands of logins per second. One weak link, one zombie account and they’re in.
Great, now they’re logging into your PayPal while you’re still trying to remember if it’s passwordDog! or Dogpassword!
You can go through all your accounts one by one to kill off those you don’t use, but that’s a hassle and you won’t do it.
🚫 Passwords in your browser
Think your browser’s built-in password manager will save you? Nope. It’s lame, really.
If someone gains access to your device even for a minute in person or via malware, they can unlock all your saved logins in Chrome, Safari or Edge with little effort. Worse, your browser won’t warn you if your passwords have been leaked online or on the dark web.
This convenience is a massive risk. Think of it like hiding your house keys under the doormat … and telling the whole internet.
🔐 What I use and you should, too
I trust NordPass, a real password manager with zero-knowledge encryption. That means only you can access your password vault, not NordPass, not hackers, not anyone else.
It helps you:
- Create 16+ character passwords that would take a hacker trillions of years to crack.
- Autofill login info across all your devices.
- Scan the dark web for leaks.
- Safely import (and replace) those weak browser-saved passwords.
It also helps you organize your logins, share them securely and clean up old zombie accounts fast. Yea, it’s that good.
👉 Save 52% on NordPass + get 1 EXTRA month free right now. Dang, this is a deal. Only $1.43/month for solid protection you need and can trust.
Lock things down now before your expired mediational account triggers a zero bank balance.
Tags: hackers, internet, malware, NordPass, security
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