Many computer systems in Western Australia's public service are at risk from hackers because of weak passwords.
Auditor General Caroline Spencer tabled her annual Information Systems Audit Report in parliament on Tuesday, which included an in-depth assessment of password use at 17 agencies.
Information systems were vulnerable, she concluded, with weak passwords set for more than one quarter of the enabled network accounts.
In several instances, the accounts were used to access critical agency systems and information via remote access without any additional controls.
"After repeatedly raising password risks with agencies, it is unacceptable that people are still using password123 and abcd1234 to access critical agency systems and information," Ms Spencer said.
"It is frustrating because my office has demonstrated to agencies over many years how weak passwords and poor system controls can be taken advantage of to access information systems without detection."
Other weak passwords in the top 10 included password, password1 and support.
Ms Spencer cited a 2017 Verizon report that linked 81 per cent of hacking-related breaches to stolen or weak passwords.
