ID: IRCNE2012101658
Date: 2012-10-29
According to "techworld", Splashdata, a security software developer, released its annual list of the most common passwords on the internet. Once again, "password," "123456," and "12345678" are the three most popular, in that order.
The list of most common passwords is based on file dumps from online hackers. Splashdata notes that 2012 saw several high-profile security breaches, including Yahoo, LinkedIn, eHarmony, and Last.fm. The company says it releases its annual list to raise awareness of bad passwords.
In addition to the usual face-palm provokers such as "abc123'"and "qwerty," the list includes some returning oddballs: "monkey," "baseball" and "shadow." A few of the new entries are more unexpected: "jesus," "ninja," and "mustang" all made the top 25.
Here's the full list and how it compares to last year's:
- password (Unchanged)
- 123456 (Unchanged)
- 12345678 (Unchanged)
- abc123 (Up 1)
- qwerty (Down 1)
- monkey (Unchanged)
- letmein (Up 1)
- dragon (Up 2)
- 111111 (Up 3)
- baseball (Up 1)
- iloveyou (Up 2)
- trustno1 (Down 3)
- 1234567 (Down 6)
- sunshine (Up 1)
- master (Down 1)
- 123123 (Up 4)
- welcome (New)
- shadow (Up 1)
- ashley (Down 3)
- football (Up 5)
- jesus (New)
- michael (Up 2)
- ninja (New)
- mustang (New)
- password1 (New)
We're probably preaching to the choir but a strong password contains letters, numbers, and symbols - you can use short phrases separated by underscores if you're worried about remembering a long sequence.
Also, try not to use the same password over and over, especially for sensitive accounts such as banking and email.
If all that sounds like too much, there are always third-party tools to help, such as LastPass, 1Password, Roboform, eWallet, SplashID, or KeePass.
You can also set up two-step authentication with Google or Facebook.
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