25 Worst Passwords
November 21, 2011
Protect your online passwords
Choosing your online password is a compromise between something I can remember and something that will not easily be found. Lots of us go for the lazy solution and many of us use the same password over and over again for convenience.
Good practice would suggest a different password for each website and that we change it at least once a month. But good practice is just that and depending on how important the information that can be accessed the more important that you keep your password safe and secure. Today 8 digits are recommended, a mix of letters and numbers, not using sequences e.g. abc, 123 etc.
Here is the top 25 as provided by Splashdatas latest annual report.:-
1. password, 2. 123456, 3.12345678 , 4. qwerty, 5. abc123
6. monkey , 7. 1234567 , 8. letmein, 9. trustno1, 10. dragon
11. baseball, 12. 111111, 13. iloveyou, 14. master, 15. sunshine
16. ashley , 17. bailey, 18. passw0rd, 19. shadow, 20. 123123
21. 654321, 22. superman, 23. qazwsx, 24. michael , 25. football
If you recogise one of yours above – its time to rethink your password.
I have over 40 logins and this matched with a very bad memory has meant that eventually I have come to depend on a password manager service.
Splashdata (splashdata.com) themselves provide such a service. I happen to use Lastpass (lastpass.com) which has become a fixed addon button on my broswer and automatically fills in my logins when I am logged into lastpass.
Maybe its time to think about your level of security and the consequences of something as simple as having your email hacked never mind your bank account!
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